Lust At First Sight, Love At First Sound
by VnikkiR
Summary: Full synopsis inside.
1. Synopsis

Synopsis:

_Lust At First Sight, Love At First Sound_ follows the narration of a young woman named Rinoa Heartilly. Overcoming a difficult past left her with a struggling present and a doubtful future. After graduating from Balamb Garden, Rinoa decides to go to school abroad in Galbadia where she will face many unexpected challenges. It all begins when she unknowingly becomes the victim of an illegitimate business whose criminals frame her for a crime she did not commit. Unable to prove her innocence, she is sent to D-District Prison where she will experience the joy and pain of love and friendship, as well as being the target of merciless cruelty.

Meanwhile, Squall Leonhart, an egotistical, self-indulgent young man from a prominent family in Trabia, falls into the trap of the illegitimate business as well. As Squall is brought to his cell within D-District Prison, he encounters a beautiful woman who he falls in love with at first sight. Eavesdropping on the conversation she was having with another man, the only thing Squall is able to hear as he passes by is the name "Rinoa". When Squall is locked up in his cell, he meets Rinoa who he assumes is the beautiful woman he had seen from before. Unwilling to tell the truth, Rinoa lies and pretends to be the other woman.

After a short period of time, Squall is set to be released from the prison when Rinoa becomes the victim of a vicious attack and is on the verge of death. Desperate to save her, Squall strikes a deal with the Headmaster of D-District Prison and promises to return her as soon as she is treated for her wounds. But upon releasing Rinoa, that is when Squall finds out the truth behind her identity, as well as discovering that the person responsible for Rinoa's attack is none other than the beautiful woman that he thought he was in love with.

Once Squall and Rinoa left the prison, the guard that is assigned to follow them turns out to be an undercover SeeD agent that informs the pair of what is really going on within the prison and of the illegitimate business that's currently being investigated by the SeeD. Once Rinoa is treated, they are forced to go into hiding in Winhill disguised as a married couple.

_Lust At First Sight, Love At First Sound_ will not only take you on the journey of a young woman who will endure, survive, and conquer the challenges that life will bestow upon her, but will tell the story of how she guides a childish boy into becoming a man, as well as what it really means to fall in love.


	2. Prologue

Prologue:

I was the girl that no one else wanted to be. That was, with the exception of myself, of course. In the small town of Timber where everyone knew who you were and everyone knew your business, I was known as Rinoa Heartilly, the victim of misfortune. But was it misfortune or was it fate that led me to my destiny? After all, had everything in my life not happened the way it did, I wouldn't have met _him_. And that in itself would have been the most unfortunate misfortune of all.

My so-called misfortune began eighteen years ago with Caraway, a young man whose life revolved around Triple Triad, the most competitive gambling card game. Though it was the quickest way to lose gil, it was also the quickest way to win it. This was the way he lived his life, until the day he gambled his way into the biggest debt he'd ever had. Unable to pay, he was given a short period of time to gather the gil he needed to pay off his debt. If he couldn't do so, he'd have to pay with his life.

He was aware that he was a hopeless cause. Every negative emotion known to man had hit him, but more strongly were fear, anxiety, and frustration. He found himself wandering into a pub and ordering drinks he couldn't afford, but nonetheless, even if he got thrown out of there and beaten to a pulp, he'd make sure he'd be so out of it he wouldn't be able to feel a thing.

Many hours and shots later found this young man drunk out of his mind. He managed to sneak out of the pub without a scratch on him, but ended up stumbling his way to a house of prostitution. This marked the next part of my misfortune.

Her name was Julia and she was one of the best, or so they said, which could either be taken in a good or a bad way. I chose not to think much of it. Business was business, and if she was doing her best, then you were getting your money's worth. With all the money she made, drugs were easy accesses to her. She must have been stoned out of her mind, because when that young man walked into the room, they both didn't know what hit them… Me.

It was then that my mother became my mother, though she wouldn't find out until she realized she was late a month later. She thought it was a disaster. She didn't want having a child to ruin her assets, which were the only things she could use to make the gil that she did. And she especially didn't want to take care of some kid. Sadly so, I almost never came into existence, but blessed be, I did, and because of that second chance I was able to meet _him_.

It was rather ironic how my father was the one responsible for giving me that second chance. I'd like to say that it was done out of fatherly love, but it was actually for self-interest. Even though I wasn't born yet, he managed to use me to manipulate my mother into paying off his debts with all of her savings.

So when I finally came into the world, I met a gambling drunk and a whorish druggie for parents. Of course my father kept on losing in Triple Triad while my mother lost most of her business, so we ended up living off of whatever we could afford. Eventually, my father's gambling started to take a toll on my mother's savings and she decided to cut him off from whatever gil she had left. Because of this, he started abusing my mother for not giving him gil, as well as me because he thought I was the reason for him being cut from her savings.

Soon, he was involved with the wrong people. It didn't matter what he had to do; he was desperate and willing to earn gil in any way he could. As long as he could gamble, he'd be ok. That philosophy didn't last long when he was later sent to prison for the crimes he committed.

We found out later that he went insane within the claustrophobic jail without any means of alcohol and gambling, and then he committed suicide, though no one ever told me how he did it. I'd like to say that he peacefully died in his sleep of old age. That wouldn't work though, because he was a little more than twice my age.

As for my mother, she dropped me off at a relative's house, and I never heard from her again. It was a while later that I received news of her death from overdosing on various drugs.

I was just a kid when I lost both of my parents. Some said I had no obligation to call those people my parents, but either way, they created me and brought me into the world. They weren't all tender, love, and care, but just the fact that they kept me around when they could have easily abandoned me was enough to make me happy.

I never knew what it meant to be a family, at least, not the traditional kind. My parents may have had issues in their life, but there were times where they were good to me. It was a relationship no one but us could understand. It may have been their hypocrisy that saved me from the world they indulged themselves in, but whether or not that had anything to do with my decision, in the end it was my choice to not live like that.

Even after my parents' deaths my misfortune followed me. I had never met my relatives until the day that my mother sent me to live with some of them. It was more like being shipped from foster home to foster home, because no one wanted to take in a stray child that was no more than a stranger to them. And from the way that they treated me, it was likely because they had lost respect for my mother the day she started working at that house of prostitution.

It was a few months later that one of my relatives in Balamb took me into his care. His name was Irvine Kinneas and he was my mother's cousin. I'd been told that they grew up together with a very strong bond. However, it was her adolescent years that severed their relationship when she became the rebel and left home. But despite all of that, he had enough heart to send me to Balamb Garden, a private school where I could live and get an education. It was possible that he didn't want to be responsible for me, except for the bill of course. It wasn't a problem for him, as long as I didn't end up like my mother, he had said. And it wasn't a problem for me. I had never gone to school before, and it was easier to do so when I lived on my own.

At the time, I was thankful. Perhaps my misfortune had come to an end after all. But that was not so. I was lucky to be able to go to class, but not lucky enough to be liked by my teachers. I figured it was because they thought I was hopelessly dumb. It couldn't be helped; I had never gone to school in my life until then. I was lucky enough to live in a single dorm, but not lucky enough to make friends with my neighbors. Even though I was surrounded by classmates young and old, no one wanted to be my friend. I wondered if it was because word about my life got out and no one wanted to have anything to do with the girl that came from such a past. I felt so alienated on campus, and as frightening as that was in the beginning, it slowly turned into loneliness afterward. But I lived with it because I had a roof over my head, food to eat, and a chance to learn. That was my only purpose, getting an education.

However, that purpose alone couldn't help me escape the cruelty of my classmates. The boys would harass me because of the profession my mother was in, and the girls would ridicule me for all the attention I was getting from the boys. She must get it from her mother, they would say. What made it all bearable was that I had accepted and came to terms with my past. They couldn't tell me what I didn't already know. But it still wasn't enough to keep their words from cutting like a knife.

From then on, I always felt that I needed to stay invisible. I never joined any clubs or organizations. I never tried out for any of the teams. I never did anything other than study. After all, I had years of material that I was behind on, and I knew I had to catch up in order to keep up with them. But most of all, I never made myself pretty. I'd notice how the girls around me would fuss over their hair and constantly reapply their make-up and how often they'd go shopping for the latest trends. It was something I never had the leisure of doing; after all, any money I received from Irvine went to my living expenses and my education, but never for me. Why make myself pretty when I didn't feel pretty at all? Why do something that would draw attention to me? Why would it matter anyway? It wasn't important, but I couldn't help wish that for once, I could just be a normal girl that didn't have to hide around the judgment of others.

It was in high school that I became a girl transformed. I was a full-time student earning respect from my teachers with my straight-A's in advanced placement and honors classes. And while I wasn't studying, I worked as a waitress in an expensive restaurant. It wasn't the most glamorous job in the world, but the pay was great. Irvine was still providing for my finances, which gave me the opportunity to save up for college. I didn't know how, but I wanted to repay him for everything he had done for me. I asked him once when I went to visit him over vacation, and he told me if I go to college, that would be enough to pay him back. But that wasn't enough for me. I wanted to do more, which was why I secretly got a job. I wanted to live on my own and go to college, all expenses paid out of my own pocket, and not out of his.

And while life was beginning to look a little brighter for me, I was still pretty much alone. It was fine though. As long as I kept myself busy, I wouldn't have to deal with anything my classmates had to say about me.

Years later, the end of my senior year of high school had finally arrived. I had graduated with the highest honors of my class and was accepted into many different colleges. However, my dream was to go to school abroad. I wanted to leave the place where everyone in my family, with the exception of my mother's cousin, never wanted me, the place where no one wanted to befriend me, and the place where no one loved me. This was the place where my past existed and would continue to haunt me if I didn't leave.

I wanted to go to a place where everyone didn't know who I was and everyone didn't know my business. A place where I didn't have to be the girl that no one else wanted to be. A place where I wouldn't be known as the victim of misfortune. But little did I know what misfortunes I would meet upon going to this place and that this place would be the place where I would soon meet the boy that will change my life.


	3. Chapter One

Chapter One:

It was the summer after I graduated from Balamb Garden that I found myself waiting in the airport with Irvine. I had decided to go to school abroad in Galbadia using all of the scholarships I earned to pay for my tuition. And all of the gil that I saved up from my job at the restaurant was more than enough to pay for all of my living expenses. It was my uncle that paid for my one-way ticket out of the country though. It was a gift, he said, as a way to congratulate me for coming this far. Along with the ticket, he gave me a cell phone. It was to keep in touch with him, he had said, in case something happens. Of course I accepted his explanation literally, but I'd like to think it was because he was actually going to miss me.

"You know Irvine… if you keep asking the same questions, you're still going to get the same answers," I pointed out with a laugh.

"Like I care," Irvine shot back. "If I don't remind you, you're bound to forget."

"I will not!" I defended myself.

It was bright and early in the morning, but the airport was already busy. The Ragnarok was still getting prepared and an attendant was patiently waiting to begin accepting tickets. My uncle and I sat in the crowded room where everyone anxiously waited to get on. Some were impatient and frustrated with the slight delay, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Do you have everything?" Irvine asked again.

With a sigh, I replied, "Sir, yes sir, I have my airplane ticket, passport, driver's license, bank card, credit cards, insurance card, and the temporary citizen card, sir!"

"Come on Rinoa, I'm being serious," he said crossing his arms. "Ok, well, what about your suitcase?"

"I've checked it in."

"And your gil?"

"I've already deposited most of it into my new account, but I'm carrying some with me, just in case."

"Did you call the bank yet?"

"Yeah, the transfers went through. They faxed me the document last night."

"What about your apartment?"

"I called and they said I can get my keys once I finish up some paperwork."

"And the car company?"

"My car's ready for me to pick up."

"Did you call Galbadia Garden yet?"

"Everything's been arranged and paid for. I'll be starting as a freshman this fall."

"And how about that dog training job you applied for?"

"My resume was accepted and I can start my training next month."

Irvine paused for a moment, as though he was trying to remember if there was anything else. "Ok," he said with a slight nod of approval.

The gate was opened and the attendant announced that we could start boarding the Ragnarok. Everyone seemed to release a deep sigh of relief at the same time as they gathered their belongings and got in line. I grabbed my bag and stood up.

"I guess it's time," Irvine said quietly eyeing the passengers getting on to the plane.

"Yeah, I guess it is," I agreed.

"Do you have your cell with you?" he asked.

"Of course," I answered as-a-matter-of-factly, taking out my fully charged cell phone out from my bag.

"Ok, then call me when you get there and let me know how everything works out."

I laughed and shook my head. "I know."

Not knowing what else to say, I started walking away when I felt a tug on my arm.

"Rinoa," he began softly. His eyes looked downward as though hoping the words would come out of the floor. He looked back up at me and let out a sad laugh. "A moment ago, I had so much to say to you before you left, but now, I just don't know what to say. You know me; I was never good with this kind of thing."

"It's all right," I reassured him. "You can tell me later. We have plenty of time."

"I know," he replied. "But I have this feeling, like, the second you get on that plane I'm never going to see you again."

I cringed. "Come on, don't talk like that. We'll see each other again soon. I'll visit every chance I get, ok?"

He nodded.

It was then that I heard the attendant gave a final announcement and it was time for me to go. "I know we've never been close and that I've been such a burden on you for so many years, but I am so thankful to have you in my life. You've been like a father to me, and I just wanted you to know that. It's all right if you don't think of me as a daughter, but someday, I'll find a way to pay you back for everything you've done for me." I picked up my bags and looked at him one last time. To my confusion, he had a shocked expression on his face. It was the kind that one would get when they were hit with so many different emotions all at once that they weren't sure which to react with first. He didn't say anything, or rather, he couldn't say anything, so I said, "Well, I guess I'll see you when I see you. "

I hesitated for a moment, wanting to give my uncle a hug, but not knowing how. We were never close enough to be affectionate towards each other, and the thought of it was a bit too awkward for me to put into action. I was hoping he would say something. I guess a part of me hoped that he acknowledge me as family before I left, but he remained silent. It was a bit of a disappointment, but it was what I expected to happen. With that, I turned and walked away.

After giving the attendant my ticket, I walked through the gate towards the Ragnarok. As I walked through that narrow passageway, I couldn't help but think about what Irvine had said. Suddenly, his fear came crashing down on me, and I couldn't help but think, too, that the moment I get on this plane, I will never see my uncle again.

* * *

I had never been on a plane before. Though it was my first time, I spent about two days in the sky crossing land and sea in the Ragnarok. It was a bit scary at first, but once I got used to it, it was an amazing experience. To be so close to the sun, moon, and stars, so close I could almost reach out and touch them. To fly through clouds, was like being in a dream and unlocking the door to heaven. To be among birds as their flock grazed the sky made me quite envious that they could fly. And I could almost imagine how the gods smile down onto Gaia as we passed over many lands.

The further we traveled from Balamb, the more I could feel the burden of my past lift off my shoulders. Yet at the same time, I felt as though I would never be relieved of such discomfort. True, Galbadia would know nothing of my past, but I would know it. I could never forget where I came from, whether it was what had happened with my family or everything that followed after their deaths. But at least I would not be plagued with such misfortune and judged by things that were out of my control.

That thought provided some comfort, to say the least, but I still couldn't help but look at my faint reflection in the airplane window and still see a girl of no sense of identity and value. What did one become when they came from a past such as mine? Created a family to replace the one they never had? Made as many friends to replace the memories of old enemies? Or perhaps, did what I was doing, fine-tuning my abilities, strength, and knowledge to overcompensate for what I had lost? But what was that concept of lost when it was something never had? Perhaps I never had anything to have lost before. And I couldn't help but wonder if I had anything to gain by going to Galbadia. Perhaps I was wishing for a chance and praying for a miracle. All I knew was that I wanted to start over, or at least, continue what I had already started.

It might have been the landing that made me feel this way, but I couldn't ignore the churning of anxiety and the thought that the moment I step off this plane, my life would be changed forever.

* * *

We arrived at the airport early morning. Outside on the distant horizon, the sun began to rise and chase the remnants of night away. The air was cool and damp and reeked of excitement. I hugged my arms around me tighter as I felt an anxious chill run through my core. Because we came from the side of the world that would be night at this time, most of us were wide eyed and ready to go. Taking a deep breath, I stepped out the Ragnarok's door and felt a cool breeze run through my hair. I smiled. It was that kind of morning.

Walking down the stairs was all right; it was the planting my feet on solid ground part that took me off guard. I had been thousands of feet off the ground, and being so firmly pulled in by gravity was something I'd have to get used to again. I was also a bit tired and groggy from the two days spent confined in my seat by the window. I guessed that's what they called jetlag.

We were greeted by Galbadian attendants that led us into the airport where we can pick up our luggage and be on our way. Before I went to stand in line, I dug through my bag and pulled out my cell to make a call. I looked through my cell's address book where only one name was listed.

"Hello?" I heard a masculine voice on the other end of the line.

"Hi Irvine, it's me," I told him.

"Rinoa?" he said my name softly. "I guess this means you're in Galbadia now."

I half expected him to be happy to hear that I had arrived safely, but instead I sensed a hint of disappointment and sadness that made me uneasy. There was something in his voice that sounded of regret. Maybe he thought it was a mistake to send me to school abroad at Galbadia Garden and wanted me to return to Balamb.

"Yes, I am," I answered him. "We got here a little while ago. Everything was on schedule, so now all I have to do is pick up my luggage and call a taxi to drop me off at the apartment complex."

I waited for him to reply, but I was answered with silence.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

"Oh," he let out with gentle surprise. "Yeah, I'm here."

"Ok, good," I said. "I thought we got disconnected. Anyway, I guess I should get going, so I'll call you when I'm at the apartment, ok?"

Once again, there was no answer. Before I left Balamb, he was quick to mention anything I'd forgotten to take care of, almost like he wanted to keep me busy enough to stay. But now that I was in Galbadia, he had nothing to say. We were never close enough to have a decent conversation, but I couldn't help but think he was hiding something from me. Did I leave something behind in Balamb that made him act this way?

"Irvine," I started. "Is everything ok?"

"What?" he said with yet more surprise. "Oh yeah, everything's fine. I'll talk to you soon."

I was about to say my good-byes when Irvine cut me short. "Oh, and Rinoa?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry."

My brows furrowed in confusion. "Sorry? For what?" I asked. Did he pull a good-bye prank on me that I had yet to discover? No, he was too serious to do something like that. But the more I searched my mind, the less possibilities I could come up with. "There's nothing to be sorry for. You haven't done anything wrong."

"Oh," he said again. He seemed to say that a lot today. "Yeah, I guess you're right… never mind. It's nothing. Just have fun and… be safe."

I had been surrounded by brutal honesty and hypocrisy, but not too much with lying. But I could usually tell if someone were lying to me, and at the moment, it saddened me to know that Irvine was definitely hiding something from me. And whatever it was, I never questioned him, because I knew that he would tell me one day.

* * *

It didn't take too long until I reached the front desk where I was to pick up my luggage. I was greeted by a Galbadian attendant who asked for my name, passport, and airline ticket. Her eyes were glued to a computer screen as she typed in my information and told me to wait.

"They're coming in through the scanners," she informed me with a polite smile. "Please wait a moment, Miss."

I nodded and continued to wait, when suddenly I heard a beep coming from the computer. It caught the attention of the attendant who read the window that popped up on her screen and gasped.

"What is it? Is there something wrong with my luggage?" I asked in concern.

The attendant turned her shocked expression towards me and immediately replaced it with a calm one. "Not at all, Miss. Everything is fine." First Irvine, now her. Everyone seemed to be telling me things were fine when they obviously weren't. "The scanners are temporarily malfunctioning, I'll be right back."

At a quick turn of her heel, the attendant disappeared through the double doors and left me to wait. Lovely, they probably misplaced my luggage and were trying to relocate it. What if they did lose it? I wouldn't know what I would do. I had only brought one big suitcase and it pretty much had my whole life in it. My fingers started to tap on the counter top. What was taking them so long?

The attendant finally came back out through the double doors with the same fake expression on her face. "We're sorry for the delay, Miss. It seems we've mixed up your luggage with someone else's. We'd like you to go to the back and verify that they're yours."

"Go where?" I wanted her to say again. "Why can't you bring them out here and I can take a look at them?"

"Well," the attendant started to fidget. "There are so many, it could be a security hazard to bring them out at once, and since you only registered one suitcase, I'm sure you can find it faster this way."

"Sure…" I said. I had never been to an airport before this trip, so I wasn't familiar with their protocols. But there was something strangely suspicious about the attendant that I couldn't ignore. She pointed towards the corridor to my left and told me the security guard would allow me temporary clearance.

When the security guard opened the door for me, I walked in, only to hear the door slam shut and lock behind me. I swiftly turned around and ran to the door to try and open it, but it wouldn't budge. "What's going on?" I was sure security should be tight around airports, but I was only stepping in for a moment.

But whatever thoughts that had been rushing through my mind immediately blacked out when I felt something heavy slam into the back of my skull.


	4. Chapter Two

Chapter Two:

Swimming in the sea of darkness, I felt nothing. I could see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. It was like being handicapped from experiencing reality through the senses, and though there was something liberating about it, it was like being a rat trapped in a maze with no exit and no reward. It would just wonder aimlessly, with the false hope that one day it would escape such cruel fate, but not knowing if that day would ever come.

Soon I could feel something faint in the darkness. Too faint to be distinguishable, all I knew was that it was pain. I was in pain. Wait, I was in pain? Suddenly I felt my senses coming back to life and my consciousness flooding into me. The more I tried to remember, the more amplified the pain became.

In barely a moment later, I gasped in shock as a bucket of ice cold water was thrown into my face. "Ah!" I cried. My eyes were wild and searching my surroundings. I could feel my heart beating hard within my chest, but I was breathing even harder. I tried to move, but my wrists and ankles were bound to the chair I found myself sitting in. I groaned, realizing where the pain had been coming from, and that's when I remembered how someone struck me from behind. The back of my head was pulsating in pain, and I could swear there was dry blood caked on the back of my neck. What in the world was going on?

I calmed myself down and really took in everything around me. There was a man dressed in a SeeD uniform standing in the shadows against the wall, and next to his foot was the bucket he used to throw water in my face and wake me up. I sat in the center of a small room enclosed with muddy brick walls, and to the man's right was the door that I would've made a run for had I not been bound to the chair. SeeDs were supposed to be an elite mercenary group that protected the world, so why did they do this to me?

"What happened?" I asked him. "Where am I? Who are you?"

The man crossed his arms and continued to lean back in silence.

"Don't just stand there! Tell me what the hell I'm doing here!" I demanded frantically. Struggling with the metal cuffs that held me captive, my exhaustion took the best of me and I could feel myself growing faint. It was then that the man pushed himself off the wall and started pacing in front of me. He had a gold name plate on his front jacket pocket that read Vinzer Deling with five stars, the highest SeeD level to be obtained. "Vinzer Deling… is it? I thought SeeDs are supposed to protect people. Why did you bring me here?"

He stopped mid-step and turned to face me. He was a man in his early forties with short jet black hair and dark brown eyes. He already started to have wrinkles of age and stress show on his face, which to me was normal considering his position as a SeeD. After a moment, he said, "Like you said, to protect people."

My face cringed into confusion. "Why would anyone need protection from me? I haven't done anything wrong!"

"What is your name?" he asked monotonously.

"Rinoa," I replied. "Rinoa Heartilly."

"No," he said. "What is your _real_ name?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "That _is_ my real name. I am Rinoa Heartilly."

Vinzer started to pace again. "That is _not _your real name and you can stop lying because we have already verified it. All records of identification for a 'Rinoa Heartilly' do not exist." My mouth hung open with many questions hanging on the tip of my tongue but I had lost my voice to ask them. "So I will ask you one more time, what is your name?" The man was extremely composed, yet scarily intimidating at the same time.

"I already told you, it's Rinoa! Rinoa Heartilly! Believe it or not, that _is _my real name, and I don't know what kind of idiots you've got looking for my files, but those records _do_ exist. I _am_ Rinoa Heartilly!" I argued the man who stopped pacing.

"If you won't tell me what you're real name is, then tell me who you work for," he instructed me.

"Who I work for?" I repeated. "I just came to Galbadia! How could I have started working anywhere if I've been here the whole time?"

"You're not in Galbadia anymore," he told me. "This is the Lunar Base. And you'll remain here until you tell us who sent you to attack the Galbadian airport."

I froze. "Is that why you arrested me? You thought I was going to attack hundreds of thousands of people in an airport? How the hell would you get an idea like that?"

"We received intelligence from the Galbadian Counter Terrorist Unit," he explained. "We were told they were expecting an attack in the Galbadian airport and we were advised to search all incoming customer's luggage. The suitcase registered to you as "Rinoa Heartilly" was where we discovered three nerve gas canisters."

Upon hearing this, I was stunned beyond reason.

"We are still collecting and testing evidence at the crime lab as we speak," Vinzer continued. "So tell me, what were you going to do with the canisters once you got your hands on them? Release them into the ventilation system? Or perhaps you were going to use them elsewhere? Who or what was your primary target, and why must you destroy it?"

"Enough!" I screamed. "This isn't real. You all are playing a sick joke on me aren't you? Who put you up to this? Was it the kids from Balamb Garden? Did they want to keep making me suffer by pulling a messed up prank like this?"

"Balamb Garden?" he asked. "What does Balamb have to do with anything?"

"That's where I'm from," I told him. That's when I thought of something. "My mother's cousin is there! He's the one who's been taking care of me since I was a kid. His name is Irvine Kinneas. If you contact him, he can tell you everything."

"Irvine Kinneas?" the man considered. "We'll see."

And with that, he made his way out the door and left me alone in the cold dark room where I slipped into another state of unconsciousness.

* * *

It was like being in a dream. You could feel yourself drift in and out of consciousness but you couldn't quite differentiate what was reality and what was imagination. Was this all just a dream? Or did it actually happen? But no matter how badly I wanted to pinch myself and wake up from this terrible nightmare, I just kept right on dreaming.

I could feel myself coming to again, and this time upon my awakening, I found myself alone in the small room. With the metal cuffs still tightly bounding me to the chair, I was trapped without any means of dietary consumption or anesthetics for the wound on the back of my head. I wish I knew what time of day it was, for I'd been knocked out for who knows how long at a time.

I sat there trying to find the logic in all the nonsense happening around me. But the more I tried to figure it all out, the more confused I got. Why were there nerve gas canisters in my suitcase? How did they get there in the first place? It was possible that someone might have planted them in my luggage, but I couldn't think of when they had a window of opportunity to do so. But that was where the SeeDs found them in and that was why they arrested me. But why wasn't my name in the records? It was as though I didn't exist! I kept hoping it was a malfunction, but if my name didn't turn up soon, I couldn't ignore the possibility that whoever done this was targeting me. Why else would my suitcase have the canisters, as well as having my name wiped out from the SeeD database? It all seemed beyond a strange coincidence to me.

The door suddenly opened and I looked up to see Vinzer stepping into the room. Behind him were a group of SeeDs dressed in similar fashion with loaded guns in their hands. "What's going on?" I cried. "What are you doing?"

"The name 'Rinoa Heartilly' was still not found in the records," Vinzer explained. "However, until we find out your real name, you will be referred to as 'Suspect 496'. As for your mother's cousin, there is no file in the database for an 'Irvine Kinneas'."

"What?" I gasped. "You're wrong! You have to check again!"

"Forensics sent us the test results for all evidence pertaining to the case," Vinzer continued monotonously. "As previously inferred, all evidence confirms that you _are_ guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for intent to destroy the Galbadian airport and intentional manslaughter against Galbadian employees and customers."

"No!" I cried. "You're wrong! I am _not_ guilty! Someone did this! I don't know who, but whoever it is, they're trying to frame me!"

"SeeDs, detain Suspect 496 and take her to the East Academy Train Station," Vinzer ordered the SeeDs.

"Aren't you listening?" I shouted. "I'm not the one you want. Whoever wanted to attack Galbadia is still out there! They probably knew you found out about their plans so they tried to cover it up by using me as a diversion. Why can't you see that?"

"Suspect 496, you will be transferred to D-District Prison to serve your sentence," Vinzer informed.

"What?" I cried again.

The SeeDs unlocked my metal cuffs and held me roughly by the arms. "No!" I fought. "Don't touch me! You have no right to do this to me! I am innocent! Do you hear me? I'm innocent!"

But no matter how hard I fought, I could not break from the SeeDs strong hold. The closer we came to arriving at the East Academy Train Station, the more I felt my freedom slipping through my fingers like a rope of sand; sand like that of an hourglass, whose time for me remained unreturned. It was hard to accept that I had no choice in the matter and that my future had now been crumbled by the hands of law, and not a single person believed that I, now called Suspect 496, was innocent.

* * *

The train ride to D-District Prison was probably the longest ride of my life. What was actually hours felt more like days, and when we arrived, I had to endure a long drive to the prison. When we got there, I wearily climbed out and prepared myself to face my inevitable fate. But what awaited me, to my surprise, was not quite what I expected.

The prison was surrounded by a thick cement wall standing about ten feet high, and at the top were five rows of barbed wire. The only entrance to the prison had an inner and outer gate and was guarded by many men patrolling on ground level and up in the crow's nest holding a variety of long-ranged guns. _So much for escaping_, I thought sarcastically. I stood before the gates, still cuffed and within arms reach of the SeeDs that brought me here, as I quietly watched the gates open.

A group of men and one woman crossed the threshold and came towards my direction. In front was a rather plump, middle-aged man. He had brown hair and eyes, which saw the world behind a pair of bifocals. The closer he walked to me, the more I could see that he barely reached my height. But the way he walked was one of power and command that demanded respect and obedience. With his chin up and hands interlocked behind his back, he eyed me from head to toe with a quizzical expression.

To his right was a tall man, at least twenty years his junior. He had blonde hair and gray eyes and wore a long silver jacket that partially hid an automatic pistol-sword hybrid. His stare was deathly cold, and I could almost feel icicles piercing through me under his sight.

To his left was a woman, who towered over him by a few inches and appeared about ten years his junior. I couldn't help but gap at how extraordinarily beautiful she was. She had the richest, darkest black hair that was pulled up in exquisite pins. Her cat-like eyes were a deep purple that stood out on her perfect porcelain complexion. She had the figure of a goddess that screamed out woman in every curve. She wore a long black dress that hugged her perfectly, and I wondered how such a gorgeous woman was working in a prison rather than being on a runway. I was not one to be conscious of my own appearance, but I couldn't help but feel like the ugly duckling admiring the swan. Had she not had such an arrogant smirk on her face, I probably would have admired her.

"Thank you gentlemen," the man up front told the SeeDs. "We'll take it from here."

"Yes sir!" the SeeDs saluted him enthusiastically after releasing me from their hold. With a turn on their heels, they hopped back into the car and drove away. My body longed to run after them and tell them to take me with them, but I knew it'd be all in vain. If they didn't believe me by now, they still won't believe me even if I chase them for a hundred miles.

"Suspect 496," the man called as he circled around me.

"It's Rinoa," I attempted to correct him. "Rinoa Heartilly."

"Ah, yes," he said in fake consideration. "Rinoa Heartilly… the name that does not exist, am I correct?"

I could not defend myself.

"So you are the one that tried to destroy the Galbadian airport," he said more as a statement than a question.

"I didn't do it!" I cried. "Someone framed me!"

"That's what they all say," he chuckled. "Suspect 496, do not insult the SeeDs. They are the best of the best and perform their duties with the utmost precision. You would not be here today if you hadn't committed a crime."

I bit my lip. _This is ridiculous, _I thought. I started to wonder, if they beat that idea into my head long enough, would I start to believe it? Maybe I was crazy, because crazy people usually didn't know that they're crazy, and I really did try to murder those innocent people. Or maybe, this whole deal really was a set up. But what the man said was true. SeeDs were the best, and they would never put an innocent person in prison for a crime they didn't commit.

"You seem to know who I am," I said. "So who are you?"

"I am Cid Kramer, Headmaster of D-District Prison," he announced proudly. He pointed to the two standing next to him and said, "This is Seifer Almasy, my second-in-command, and Edea Kramer, my wife."

I felt my eyebrows rise. I certainly didn't expect those introductions coming.

"Make yourself at home," Cid told me. "You're going to be here a while." And with one last chuckle, he summoned the guards behind him to take me to my cell.

As soon as I was taken out of hearing range, unbeknown to me, Cid turned towards Seifer and Edea with a threatening expression. "No harm is to come of her."

Seifer remained stoic, but Edea's brows furrowed as her mouth hung open in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"Clearly I didn't because it sounds to me like you're _protecting_ that little girl," the woman retorted in controlled anger.

"Maybe you should get your hearing checked," Cid replied. "It's not my problem you're getting old."

An unforgiving scowl carved into Edea's face. "Oh! So you're into the young ones now, is that it? Or is she yet another part of your business I have to compete with? Maybe you should've married your work instead of me since you like to fuck it so much—

Edea was cut off by a painfully blinding slap in the face. "You wouldn't have to compete with it if someone actually gave a damn about a worthless tramp like you. If somebody paid for you, I wouldn't have to deal with such a selfish bitch. So don't you fucking tell me what you want unless you want to end up like everyone else who didn't get paid for." Cid grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked her head back so she could look him in the eye. "You don't want to go to Lunatic Pandora do you? Do you?" His wife violently shook her head no. "Then mind your own business, and stay away from Suspect 496. Understood?" She nodded but earned another hard tug of her hair. "I said, understood?"

"Ok!" Edea choked out.

And with that, Cid let go of his wife and smirked before leaving her helplessly on the ground. Edea refused to let a tear fall from her eyes and bit down on her lip as to not say another word. She sat there in fuming silence before she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. Looking up, she felt her lips curl into vengeful seduction.

"Seifer."


	5. Chapter Three

Author's Note:

I apologize profusely for the delayed update. However, I do have a special treat to make up for it! In this chapter, Selphie Tilmitt is introduced into the story. She plays a vital role in foreshadowing the events that will take place in the near future, which she will do when she tells Rinoa the story of the Mortal and the Guardians. I'm actually considering working on that as a separate FanFiction because there was so much more that I wanted to have happen in the story, but this chapter was already running over long enough, so I had to write an abbreviated version of it. Also, I have the most difficult time using FFN's editing program. I can't get my line-breaks to work properly, so if you see a small dash in between paragraphs, that's where they're supposed to be. Thank you to those that reviewed in my previous chapters. They're greatly appreciated and always welcomed! I'd love to know what you all think. Onto the story… Enjoy!

-

Chapter Three:

I didn't know how real prisons function, but everything about the way I was brought in to D-District seemed so wrong. There were no prisoner formalities and everything about it seemed suspicious. When I was brought into the prison, I expected the inside to be as guarded and caged in as the outside, but I was wrong. It appeared that all prisoners were locked in their respective cells and very few guards were lounging around without much care. What kind of prison was this?

I was thrown into a tiny cell that was so small that I could touch all three walls and the door just by standing in the center. There was a small metal toilet in the corner that reeked of something I didn't want to discover. There was no floor, just hard dirt beneath me, and the walls looked fortified with hard wood and thick cloth. There was no ceiling, which I was partly thankful for because I probably would have suffered from claustrophobia. With no windows and no way to see into the outside world other than the sky, I probably would suffer from it anyway. I wondered why they would make such a flimsy cell that with time and effort I could probably break, climb, or dig out of, but then I remembered that even if I were to get out, I couldn't escape the great walls of the prison with my life in tact.

All that was left now was to wait. But for what? I wasn't sure. I'd like to say I was waiting for my freedom, but that idea seemed highly unlikely. Or perhaps I was waiting for something to do. Sitting in a tiny cell for many years to come could get pretty boring. If someone asked me last week how I envisioned my future to be, I certainly never thought it would become like this.

-

I must have fallen asleep because I could hear a voice calling out to me. As my lashes fluttered, I blinked away my drowsiness and sat up. "Hello?" I whispered.

"Hi!" a cheerful voice greeted me. It sounded like it came from the cell to my left, and I quickly got up on my knees and put my ear on the wall.

"Who is this?" I asked.

"My name's Selphie," she replied. "Selphie Tilmitt. Pleased to meet you!"

"Are you alone in there?" I asked.

"Well yeah, all the cells here are the same. Everyone gets their own."

"Oh… I didn't know that."

"That's 'cause you're new!" she exclaimed. It wasn't irritating per say, but more of a surprise to meet someone so upbeat in a prison. "So what's your name?"

"Rinoa," I said sadly. "Rinoa Heartilly."

"Oh wow!" she said. "What a pretty name!"

I smiled gently. "Thanks."

"What did you do to get in here?"

I paused for a moment. "I shouldn't be here."

I heard silence on the other side of the wall. "I think a lot of people shouldn't be here. But here we are! So we might as well make friends and help the time pass on by faster, right?"

"Don't you get to go outside?" I asked. "Aren't we supposed to work as part of our sentence or something?"

"Oh no, that's not how it works here," she said. "Once you're in a cell, that's it. You'll never leave unless Cid has business with you or if you're free to go."

"What?" I said in disbelief. I sunk to the ground and gently leaned my forehead against the wall. "I can't believe this. How long have you been here?"

"I lost track, but I think it's been almost a year now," she responded thoughtfully.

"Wow, that long?"

"Yeah… they thought I was going to bomb a Galbadian daycare center and brought me here."

"Wait!" I yelped. "You're innocent?"

"I'm here aren't I? I don't think my innocence would matter," Selphie said with an ironic laugh.

"Yes it does!" I cried. "It does because _I'm_ innocent too! Is _everyone_ here innocent of their charges?"

"I'd like to think that," she answered honestly. "But think about it. Locked up for years in a small space… anyone would say they were innocent to get out of here."

"Oh," I murmured disappointedly. "I guess you're right."

"Why fight things we can't control? Let's just make the most of it and enjoy ourselves!"

I smiled again. Ok, maybe it's a little annoying, but I admired her ability to be cheerful in times of crisis. It was certainly not a strength I excelled in.

-

A couple of months had gone by since the day I arrived in D-District Prison. With all the time I spent in my cell, the only thing that I could do was talk to Selphie. Though it was really just to pass the time, I learned a lot from our conversations. She knew almost everything about the prison like the back of her hand, and it was quite interesting to hear all of her stories.

She told me that Cid was not only the Headmaster of the prison, but he was the one that founded it many decades ago. "He's probably one of those guys trying to make the world a better place," Selphie had told me when I asked how someone could be so interested in creating and managing a criminal facility. I also heard he was one rich bastard, which was probably how he scored a wife as beautiful as Edea. Not many people knew Edea's story, so Selphie couldn't tell me much, other than the fact that everyone knew she was a power-hungry gold-digger. "Rumor has it that Cid's been so involved with his work lately that he's practically neglecting his wife," Selphie had told me as-a-matter-of-factly. "That little slut's hooked up with Seifer, and Cid doesn't have a clue! I heard that sometimes, they sneak out of the penthouse in the middle of the night and have wild, hot monkey sex in the empty prison cells!"

Remembering how the cheerful, innocent girl said that made me laugh. It was pathetic how gossip was what got me through the day, because I remember being the target of gossipers and loathing the way they talked about my business like it was theirs. I didn't personally know Cid, Edea, and Seifer, and I didn't feel that it was my place to judge their lives. But I couldn't help thinking how sad it was that things like that happen.

"I don't think I'll ever get married," I said to no one in particular one night.

"What?" Selphie whined. She was always ready to strike up or join a conversation. But then again, she was the only other prisoner around me. I could hear others in the distance, but none were close enough for me to talk to. "That's like every girl's dream! To find a wonderful man and share a beautiful wedding and spend the rest of their lives together in peace, love, and happiness!"

I smiled. Selphie was such a hopeless romantic. She was a great story teller too, that Selphie. Sometimes, when we had nothing to talk about, she'd just start telling me a story. I'd ask her where she got them from, and she'd say she just made them up as she went along. One night, I brought up the idea of escaping, just to know what she would do if we hypothetically did do it. But instead, Selphie had turned it into yet another romantic story. That time, it had been about how she and one of the guards would fall in love, and being the knight in shining armor that he was, he'd rescue her by helping her escape from the prison walls and hop onto a horse that just _happened_ to be waiting outside the gates, and ride into the setting sun away from cruel and unusual punishment. Yep, that was Selphie.

"But I'm so young," I continued. "And there's so much I want to do. I don't have time for that kind of stuff."

"Stuff?" she asked. "This is love we're talking about! Not just 'stuff'! Don't you want to fall in love and live happily ever after?"

I thought for a moment. "My parents were never in love. They didn't have me out of love. And even in the short time we spent 'together', I don't know if it was love."

"Maybe your parents did love each other, you just didn't know it," she said, earning a gentle smirk from me. "And the love between family is different. I'm talking about the love between a man and a woman!"

"But I never liked a boy before," I confessed. "I wouldn't even know what love was even if it stared me in the face."

"No way!" Selphie exclaimed. "You _never _crushed on a guy? Not even once?"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Maybe you like girls?"

"Selphie!" I pouted.

"Well, you never know, Rinoa," I could almost hear her winking. "It could be the reason why you never liked a boy before."

"No, it's not that," I explained. "I just don't want to get married, that's all."

"Rinoa…" I heard her voice turn serious. It was a rare thing to hear her speak so seriously. "Remember that story I told you about? The one about the Guardians?"

I smiled. "It's my favorite one."

She had told me the story a few nights ago, one with an ending that couldn't really be classified as happy or sad. The night she told me had been a beautiful night, one we could see as we laid on the cold, hard ground of our cells. I remember rolling my eyes when she began because I thought it'd be some sappy romance that I'd think was silly. But those thoughts slowly dissipated as she began to tell me the story of the Guardians.

With a voice as serious as the one she spoke in tonight, she had asked me, "Do you think it's possible to fall in love when you don't have any senses?"

"What do you mean?" I had asked her.

"Like the ability to see, for example," she had explained. "If you didn't have any senses, do you think you could still fall in love?"

I had thought about it for a long moment. "I don't think so."

"Are you sure?"

"Well, how do you fall in love with someone who you don't know is even there?" I had asked her. "If you can't sense anyone around you, you couldn't possibly fall in love."

"Then, if you could have just one sense, what would it be?"

As hopelessly romantic as Selphie could be, I remembered wondering how she was able to get me thinking so much about myself through those conversations. "I don't know… I guess… sight."

"Sight?"

"Seeing is believing right?" I had said jokingly, but Selphie didn't laugh.

"Wrong," she had answered simply. "That's not love, that's lust."

"How is that lust?" I had asked a bit offended. "It doesn't matter if you can taste or smell a person. And you can't fall in love with someone just by touching them. Plus you don't need to hear to communicate; you can write to each other or use sign language—

"As long as you can see what they look like, right?" Selphie had cut me off. "You know, looks can be deceiving. There are things you can see by hearing when you're not looking. You can learn a lot about someone if you just listen."

"Like us?" I had said.

Selphie had gasped. "Rinoa! You're finally admitting that you like girls?"

I had pouted when I heard her laughing. "You know what I mean!"

I could hear her laughter die down when she continued, "Yes, like us. I've never seen you before, but I can tell when you're happy or sad. There are things like that that you can't always tell just by seeing."

"I see," I had said ironically. "How come I have a feeling there's a story coming out of this?"

"Because there is!" Selphie had exclaimed.

"Naturally," I smirked and waited for her to tell the story of the Mortal and his Guardian.

"Gaea had always been a peaceful world. But what many did not know was that Gaea had been protected for many millenniums by celestial beings. Those beings were called Guardian Forces, all of whom live in the heavens and were guided by their Father, Alexander, for he was the Guardian Force of Sight. His abilities, however, would not allow absence from the heavens, thus he must send his fellow Guardian Forces of the Senses to aid him in watching over Gaea.

"One day, Siren, the Guardian Force of Sound, descended upon Gaea. Upon arriving, she suddenly heard the sounds of a man weeping. 'I hear so much sorrow,' she said. Unable to ignore the sounds of the weeping man, she followed them until they guided her to him. 'Kind sir, why is it that you weep?' she asked. But the man did not even acknowledge her presence. Noticing this, Siren closed her eyes and held her hand up with her palm facing the man. Her hand started to glow, when suddenly, her eyes shot open in sadness. 'Poor sir, you cannot hear a thing,' she said.

"Realizing this, Siren clasped her hands together and slowly spread them apart as another light glowed between her palms. But just as soon as she did that, the light disappeared as she hesitated to continue. She knew the repercussions of what she was about to do, but she could not bear to carry the guilt and remorse for leaving behind someone she knew she could have helped. And so, she held her hands up again and soon, her golden harp appeared as she began to play a tune with a sound and melody that no mortal had ever heard before. As she played, waves of gold emanated from the harp while an amethyst tide flowed gently around her and streamed its way towards the man. When the ritual was complete, Siren's golden harp transformed into dust and slowly spirited away with the wind as she collapsed onto the ground. But as weak as she was, she waited.

"A moment later, the man stopped weeping and sat in silence. His face was wrought in confusion when Siren decided to ask him again, 'Kind sir, why is it that you weep?' The question made him jump. 'I… I can hear,' he said more as a statement than a question. 'Yes, you can,' Siren told him. 'I have given you the gift of Sound, and now you may listen and speak to the world to your heart's content.'

"And that was precisely what the man did. He had introduced himself as Aki, and for many days and many nights, he spoke a great deal with Siren and wished to listen to her speak just as much. To hear another's voice, as well as his own, was something Aki had not been able to do in so long. When Siren had asked him again the reason why he wept, he told her it was because all of his senses had degenerated, and he could do nothing but continue living out his meaningless existence. 'It must have been lonely,' Siren sadly said. 'Yes it was,' Aki replied. 'But because of you, I don't feel so alone anymore.'

"The two continued their conversation for many days and many nights when finally, Siren asked him, 'If you could have one wish, what would it be?' Without hesitation, Aki replied, 'To fall in love.' This made Siren curious as she asked, 'How does one fall in love when they cannot sense those around him?' Aki answered, 'Because now I can hear. Hearing is seeing with my eyes closed. You can hear things that the eyes cannot see. If I can hear her voice, then that alone would make me happy.'

"Siren smiled, but it soon turned into a frown when she told him it was time for her to return back to the heavens. 'Wait!' he called out. 'Please, do not leave me.' Siren told him, 'But I must. It is my duty.' Aki replied, 'You have given me the gift of hearing, but what does it matter if all I will hear is silence?' With that, Siren played her golden harp again, but with a different tune this time. Siren told him, 'When you stop hearing this song, that is when I will return.'

"And with that, Siren summoned her golden harp once more. As she played, the same waves of gold and amethyst tide flowed around her body, but cascaded across the sky up towards the heavens where she was to return. Once the path was made, the golden harp turned to ashes once more as its Guardian made her way on the path she had created. Before she left, she turned around once more to look at the man who she had given her gift to and smiled with affection.

"The Guardian wasn't sure exactly what it was she was feeling at that moment, but whatever it was, it made her happy. 'It is a mysterious feeling,' she whispered. 'This thing called love.' Though she said it so softly, Aki's keen sense of hearing had hung on to every word. But before he could tell her that he felt the same, he knew she was gone. 'I thought there was nothing left in this life for me,' he wished she could hear. 'Yet I waited instead of putting an end to what I thought was nothing more than a meaningless existence. My patience, though as lonely and painful as it was, was worth obtaining, because I was able to meet you.' A single tear escaped from his blind eye. 'Because of you, I was able to hear again, to live again… to love again,' Aki's voice wavered. 'I've found a reason to be here. Not to wait for death, but to wait for life. My patience is no longer being tested. For you, I'll wait an eternity.'

"Many sunrises and sunsets later found the man listening to the song of Siren, and though each note was never repeated and every melody never stayed the same, he was able to remember the feelings behind the music. He soon realized it had been Siren's heart he'd been listening to, for it played her feelings of happiness and sadness, a song of love and longing. It was almost like she was speaking to him from the heavens, and though he never wanted to stop hearing such a lovely tune, he also wished for it to end, for that was when Siren was expected to return. But what he didn't know would soon come to haunt his days.

"Unbeknownst to him, though Siren safely returned to the heavens, she had a difficult time fulfilling her duties as a Guardian because she was still weak from giving the man her some of her mystical powers. But she persevered and finished her tasks quickly because she wanted to return to Gaea as soon as possible. It was unwise of her, because when the time came for her to return, something devastating had happened.

"After summoning her golden harp to create the path she must take to return to Gaea, she descended into her journey, only to find that she did not have enough strength to make it to the end. The path itself was draining whatever strength she had left, and it crumbled before turning to ashes beneath her. Unsupported and weak, Siren, the Guardian Force of Sound, was sent plummeting to her death.

"The moment that it had happened, the song of Siren had changed from its relaxing tune of content and anticipation to one of disturbing anxiety, all within four measures. This sudden change had startled the man, especially when it ended in silence. 'The music has stopped', he said with uncertainty. 'But something's not right. Something is wrong. I just know it!'

"Desperate to hear from his love, he decided to pray to her Father, the Guardian Force of Sight, Alexander. 'Great Guardian Force Alexander, please hear my call, I wish to find my beloved Siren!' he prayed. And soon after, the Guardian heard his prayer and asked him, 'What has happened to her?' Aki replied, 'I do not know. But she speaks to me through her song. Before I was met with silence, she was so afraid! She was in so much agony! She was in danger! I… I can't stand the thought of losing her! Please, Great Alexander, tell me what I can do! How can I find her? How can I save her?'

"Alexander found the man quite intriguing. 'Do you love my Daughter?' he asked. Aki didn't blink. 'I do', he answered. 'Enough to return her gift?' Alexander asked. Aki did not answer right away, but then said that he did. His hesitation did not go unnoticed by the Guardian, and Alexander thought for a moment before nodding in uncertain approval. 'Then you must go to her. I will bless you with the gift of Sight. Then, my children shall guide you to where she is. Find her, and bring her back to me'. Aki replied, 'I won't rest until she is safe from harm.'

"Alexander summoned two of his Children who were also Guardian Forces of the Senses. Ramuh, his eldest son, was the Guardian Force of Smell, and Carbuncle, his youngest son, was the Guardian of Taste. Both had blessed Aki with their gifts, but Alexander told the man that he must retrieve the last Sense on his own. 'You must go to the Shrine of my Daughter, Shiva. Pray to her. Ask her to bless you with her gift of Touch. If she accepts, then she will guide you to where Siren is.'

"And so, Aki accepted his mission and began his journey around Gaea. But before he went, he asked Alexander, 'How will I find her Shrine?' Alexander answered, 'I shall call upon my nephew, Odin, for he is one of the Guardian Forces of the Universe. He is the Guardian Force of the Stars and shall aid you in navigating you to your destination.'

"A moment later, Aki saw a spectacular display of light when suddenly, two bright stars appeared in the sky. 'The first start represents your present location', Alexander told him. 'The second is where you need to go. Follow the Constellation of Odin, he shall guide you to the Shrine.'

"When Aki set out on his journey, he found that with each destination he arrived, another star appeared, soon taking him to the Temple where the Shrine of Shiva dwelled. 'Great Guardian Force Shiva, please hear my call, I wish to find my beloved Siren!' Aki had gotten on his knees and prayed to her. He waited for a moment until the room became misty with a cold fog. He couldn't feel it, for he had no sense of touch thus had no sense of pain, but he could see frost forming on the walls. He watched in amazement as the floor in front of the Shrine turned into a sheet of ice and flurries of snowflakes spiraled from the ground. It was like an isolated blizzard, and when the snow cleared, the man saw the celestial being encased within ice. Aki stood up and cautiously walked toward the Guardian. When he was an arm's length of the frozen Guardian, he held up his fingers and touched the ice. He could not feel its coldness biting the tips of his fingers and did not see them turn blue, for he was too entranced with the beauty of the Guardian to notice.

"Suddenly, her blue eyes shot open, causing the man to jump back bewildered as she broke through the ice and walked towards the man. 'I've felt the touch of many filthy mortals' hands on me,' she said monotonously. 'But you did not shrivel at your touch. Did you not feel any pain when you laid your fingers on me?' Aki shook his head. 'I did not mean you any impure harm,' he defended himself. 'I was uncertain whether you were the Guardian Force Shiva.' The celestial being paced around the man. 'Yes, 'tis I,' she replied. 'What is it that you so desire that you must pray to the Guardian Force of Touch?'

"Aki told her of his mission to find Siren. 'And that is why I must ask you, Great Guardian Force Shiva, to grant me the gift of Touch, and to help guide me to my beloved Siren!' Aki pleaded. 'No, I do not ask,' he corrected. 'I _beg_ of you! Please, help me find her!'

"This request enthralled Shiva. In response to him, she grinned devilishly. 'You're honest. Passionate. And you do not fear my touch,' she told him as she bent down and picked up his chin to level their eyes. 'I have never met a mortal of your kind. Forget your mission and stay with me. I can make you immortal, and we can be together for all time.'

"The man felt his eyes glaze over as the Guardian spoke to him. Her eyes held a piercing gaze, her skin was as blue as the sky, and though she was not human, she was strikingly beautiful. He felt himself drift into a state of entrancement when she leaned closer to kiss him on the lips. But right before her lips could graze his own, he turned his cheek and gently pushed her away. He was afraid to look at her, for a woman scorned was already a nightmare, but to scorn a Guardian Force was more like casting a curse than committing sin.

"He cast his eyes downward as he told her, 'I had not laid eyes on a woman in many years. You, though a celestial being you may be, are the first. Your beauty is undeniable, but to be able to see such beauty was a gift from your Father. Alexander entrusted me with his gifts to find his Daughter. I cannot dishonor him this way. Nor can I dishonor my love for Siren this way,' Aki said without looking at her. "It was never my wish to live forever, though as enticing it may be, I find that my existence has more meaning knowing that there will be an end. And my love for Siren... you cannot grant immortality to what will already live forever.'

"The man finally dared to look up and was shocked to see what he found. Shiva's hands were placed one on top of the other and were glowing a bright golden light. She brought her hands slowly upward over her head as the golden ball of energy built up to maximum power. Her back arched as she prepared to shoot the man with a beam of light, with mountains of icicles leaving a trail between the two. For a moment, Aki was terrified. Had he shamed her that much? Was this his punishment for rejecting a Guardian? Was he going to die before he had a chance to save Siren? Before he could ask himself any more questions, he felt the beam shoot at him, and instead of going through him, it filled his body from his core to his finger tips, and when the light disappeared, he felt an incredible cold air surround him. The mountains of icicles broke, and he could feel the cold melt away as he held up hands and rubbed them together. 'You… you've blessed me with Touch!' Aki exclaimed.

"Shiva's face that was once filled with lust had now turned into one of gentle grace. With a smile on her face, she told him, 'It was what you prayed for, is it not? Forgive my intrusion. I never wished to betray my Sister with such actions. But it had to be done. Father needed to know whether you would have chosen lust, vanity, and immortality in place of Siren's love, and now it is clear where your heart lies.'

"Aki was beaming. 'I cannot thank you enough. I am forever in your debt,' he told her. 'You will repay your debt when you return my Sister. I do not know exactly where she is, for I cannot sense her presence any longer. All I can do is tell Odin of where I last sensed her. But with the combined powers bestowed upon you by the Guardian Forces and with the help of Odin's Constellation, you and you alone can find her. Please, return my Sister. A world without Sound is a lonely one.'

"Aki nodded and bid the Guardian Force of Touch farewell before he left the Shrine. When he stepped out of the Temple, he noticed that Odin was creating a new Constellation for him. From the sky, the man heard Odin's voice tell him, 'Within the stars is where she lies.' Knowing what this meant, Aki used all of his senses to find Siren. 'I'm coming, Siren,' he whispered, hoping she'd hear him. 'Please, just hold on.'

"Aki ran with all his might day in and day out until he could run no more. He stumbled onto the ground and buried his face within his hands and cried. 'Siren!' he screamed. 'Siren, where are you? Please, answer me! Tell me where you are!' Aki continued to cry until suddenly, he heard a faint noise. 'What is that?' he wondered. 'It… it sounds like… Siren's Song!'

"Aki quickly climbed onto his feet and prayed that the Guardian Force of Wind would carry him to his beloved. He focused all of his strength on his gift of Sound and tried to hear where the music was coming from. He ran and ran, and finally, his legs gave out, not because he could run no more, but because he had found his Guardian, lying lifeless on the ground. Aki noticed her golden harp floating beside her, and though it was glowing weakly and it struggled to play Siren's Song, it glided its way toward him and rested on his hands. As soon as his fingers curled around it, its light faded and played no more.

"Aki crawled toward Siren and placed her golden harp in her hands and put them down on her chest. He lifted her head and rested it on his lap. He smiled at her lovingly and moved the lock of golden hair that covered her face and stroked her cheek. He could not see her very well, but he knew she was beautiful. She had the heart of an angel, a heart he desperately wanted to beat again, but he knew well enough that whatever had happened to her, she was already gone.

"A tear slip down his cheek, then another, and another. 'I have so much to tell you,' he said. 'About the Guardians and how much you mean to them… and how much you mean to me.' He lifted her head up and rested it on his chest. With his arms around her, he leaned in and buried his cheek in her hair facing away from her face. Though she could not see, he didn't want her to see him cry for her.

"Instead of telling her about his journey, Aki began to hum. Even though her songs weren't memorable, he was able to hum every tune the way her Song did when it sung of love, longing, sadness, and sorrow. Shiva was right, a world without Sound certainly was a lonely one, and without her to fill in the silence of his world, he did not need her gift any longer. As he hummed, he returned the gift that she gave to him, and silently thanked her for giving him another chance to live.

"Soon, her harp began to glow, and with each note he sang, it glowed brighter and brighter, when finally, a wave of light exploded from the harp and temporarily blinded Aki. When he opened his eyes, the golden harp had transformed, and it began to play a melody that he was unable to hear. The sounds turned into waves of gold and a tide of amethyst flowed around Siren's body, levitating her off the ground. The waves swirled around her body making her glow as brightly as the harp. When the waves disappeared, Aki put his arms under Siren and gently put her back down on the ground. The golden harp turned into dust that was carried off in the wind.

"When Aki turned back to Siren, she had already begun to awaken. Her eyes began to flutter open, and as soon as they did, Aki hugged the Guardian close to him and cried in joy when he felt her heart beat against his. He pulled back and looked at her. Her eyes were a deep amethyst, like the ocean water that surrounded her when her golden harp played. She was indeed beautiful, but her smile and the look of love in her eyes were what took his breath away. He never thought he'd get to see them, but now he did.

"She was still weak, but she was able to speak. 'You came for me,' she said. But the unresponsive look on his face made her confused. 'You… cannot hear me any longer, can you?' He kept smiling, but he shook his head, letting her know that words weren't needed for a moment like this. Even though he had become deaf once more, he hadn't yet forgotten how to use his vocal chords, and though he couldn't hear his own voice speak, he knew she could hear when he whispered, 'Thank you.'

"Siren looked at him questioningly. He continued, 'Thank you… for giving me a chance to live again. But your gift, the Guardians' gifts, are not mines to keep. They do not belong to me. Now that I've found you, I wish to return them, even if it means I won't sense your presence any more. Knowing you are safe, seeing you alive, brings me great joy. I've gotten to see your smile and feel your heart beat. And I've been blessed with your love. My life, this life, was certainly not wasted.' He kissed her forehead very gently. 'If you wish to see me, I'll be here. Even if I can't see you, hear you, or feel you… I know you'll be beside me, holding my hand, until the day I am gone.' Siren began to cry. 'Please, do not cry for me… do not sacrifice your gifts for me again. A Guardian must be strong. You are the Guardian Force of Sound, and a world without you is a lonely one.' Aki kissed her again, this time, on the lips. And the moment he let go of her… was the moment he let go of his gifts."

As soon as Selphie was finished telling the story, I didn't want it to end. It certainly was an amazing story, and though the ending was neither happy nor sad, it did make me think about my own thoughts about love.

"You should be the Guardian Force of Story-Telling because that was a great story," I told Selphie with a gentle laugh.

"I should be, shouldn't I?" she replied thoughtfully. "Now that you remember it, do you still think you'll never get married?"

I thought about it for a moment.

"If I meet him, you'll be the first to know."

"You mean '_when_' you meet him, right?"

I smiled. "Right."


	6. Chapter Four

Author's Note:

Once again, I apologize for the long wait...

Thank you to all that reviewed! I'm so glad you enjoyed "The Mortal and the Guardian". In this chapter, Selphie tells another story called, "The First Birthday". But don't get your hopes up, this story takes on the darker side of life and has no ending. I hope you don't get impatient with me, but these stories do have relevance to the plot. I think it's pretty obvious why without me explaining it… However, Rinoa _will_ discover the true ending to "The First Birthday" later on. So if you don't mind, please don't skip it. Now, onto the story. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter Four:

I had a best friend. That was certainly a big statement coming from me. I found it ironic that getting arrested and thrown into a tiny prison cell was what it would take for me to even have someone I could call a friend. But even if the circumstances were different, had I met Selphie outside these walls, I still believed we would have been friends anyway. She was just that kind of person.

Selphie was the one that approached me the day that I first came to D-District Prison. She didn't have to, but she did. She was extraordinarily cheerful and optimistic, always seeing the better things in life, no matter how hard it was to be locked up like this. I'd never met a person as strong as she was, and I'd always admire her for that. When all seemed hopeless, she was the light that kept me from crumbling into my own darkness. I didn't know how I would have survived being locked up like a caged animal if it weren't for her. And though I was ashamed of myself for being so weak, I was thankful of her for being my strength.

I never met anyone that was as thought provoking as Selphie. She certainly got me thinking about myself more than I ever got myself to think about me. It was probably her stories that worked my psychological mind the most. I never forgot her story about the Mortal and the Guardians and how our conversation about it deeply affected me. Was it too much to hope that love could find me someday? Was it wrong of me to protect myself from the possibility of heartache? How could it be that I desired something I so feared? I'd grown up witnessing all kinds of relationships being destroyed and sabotaged from all kinds of faces of human nature, and that life was something I didn't wish to be a part of, until now.

"We weren't meant to lose ourselves in the spoils of life," Selphie had said to me. It was the night she had told me the story of the Mortal and the Guardians, and she desperately wanted me to stop denying myself the idea of love. "There is no such thing as pleasure without pain and no such thing as pain without pleasure."

"That's not true," I had opposed. "There are plenty of things in the world that exist with just pain and just pleasure."

"Oh?" Selphie had said. "Name some."

She had caught me off guard yet again. "Well… how about laughing with your friends? That's a good thing. And crying because you're sad? That's a bad thing. But they're not both."

"You're happy because you're spending time with those dearest to you. But you're sad because you never want it to end," Selphie had explained. "You're sad because you're crying. But you're happy because crying gives you relief. You are one more tear closer to liberating yourself from the pain you felt, and one more cry from becoming stronger."

Maybe she was a know-it-all, but she did have a point. "So you're saying I should change my mind about love because even though I think it's bad, there could be some good in it?"

"What I'm saying," she had begun. "Is that you want to live your life without feeling _anything_. If you don't want to get hurt, then you can't expect yourself to be happy, because when you're happy, you don't want to lose that feeling. You fear that it will go away. Haven't you ever heard the saying of loving someone so much that it hurts? We're human, Rinoa, we have negative emotions too, and instead of ignoring them, you need to start _feeling_ them when they happen. What's the point of being alive if you don't _feel _like you're alive? Leave the numbness to the dead; it's not your time for that."

I remembered that conversation well, and though I was still uncertain about the idea of welcoming love into my life, I never wanted what it took for me to finally change my mind to happen.

* * *

It was sometime late in the afternoon, and I was lying on my back facing upward at the sky. It was probably a beautiful day out, but the setting that surrounded me made it difficult for me to enjoy it. Though I didn't know exactly where D-District Prison was, I knew it had to be down south because the fall was mild.

"The wind's changing," I said. "I can feel it."

I expected Selphie to reply right away, but oddly enough, she didn't say a word. Maybe she was asleep. We hadn't spoken since the night before, and even then, she didn't have much to say. I might not be able to see her, but I could tell when something was bothering her.

After what seemed like an extremely long moment, she replied, "It feels like winter."

When I arrived, the season had just turned into fall. Had it really been that long since I'd been here?

"You know," Selphie began. "When the SeeDs first brought me here, that day felt just like this one."

"You have a good memory," I grinned.

Selphie gave a rather sarcastic laugh. "Nobody forgets the day they're brought here."

"Yeah, that's true."

"That's because I'm always right," Selphie added with pretend passiveness.

Whatever tension that had filled the air had cleared when we both broke out into laughter. But just as soon it was gone, it returned.

"Do you know the story about The First Birthday?" Selphie asked.

"Never heard of it."

I assumed it was going to be another sappy, romantic love story she'd concocted overnight, but it turned out that once again, I was wrong.

"There was once a village where a young couple lived. The husband was an incredible man who was always so kind and so gentle. His wife, on the other hand, was a selfish woman who did nothing but stayed home and took care of their beloved cottage. One day, the wife told her husband that she was pregnant. From that day forward, all was joyous in the house of the happiest couple in the village.

"However, that happiness was short-lived as they soon discovered the truth of their creation… that child was defective. It was born with what looked like two different faces fused as one. One side was the face of an adorable baby, while the other revealed the face of a monster. Although he was confused and a bit frightened at first, the father got over his moment of shock and gradually accepted his daughter into his arms. Though ugly she may be, she was still his little girl, and he would love her for the rest of his life. The same could not be said of her mother though. She spent many days and many nights weeping in her bed for creating such a hideous creature. She refused to hold the baby in her arms and nurture her daughter with her milk. She would not even look at her. This did not go unnoticed by her husband. He could not believe how cruel his wife could be and threatened to leave her if she would not accept their daughter. And so, though a lie it was, she did.

"Many years go by, and the daughter grew up in a home of a loving father, but a vindictive mother. It was a sad and unfortunate day when her father suddenly passed away from a mysterious illness, for he was the only person in the world who had ever truly loved her. And now, she only had her mother to turn to, but realized soon enough that despite being tied to her by blood, her mother certainly had no intentions of keeping her around. After wasting no time in finding another suitable husband, her mother remarried and sent her daughter away to live on her own. The daughter, with no other place to go, found herself wandering around the village without water to drink, food to eat, and not even a roof to put over her head. For the first time in her life, she was truly all alone.

"It was about a month later that the village healer found the girl collapsed in front of her clinic. She had taken her in and nursed her back to health. The healer offered her water to drink, food to eat, and a place to sleep if the girl would help her take care of patients who were sick children. The girl hesitantly agreed, for she feared that her hideous scar would frighten the children. Indeed it did at first, but in an attempt to calm them down, the girl began to tell a story. It was her gift of storytelling that allowed the children to love in her instead of fearing her for her deformity.

"From then on, the girl would tell the children many stories. Stories that were happy and stories that were sad. Stories about adventure and stories about love. For the first time in her life, someone other than her father accepted her for who she was and enjoyed her company. And it was wonderful while it lasted, but soon, it all changed when her ruthless mother had two more children of her own.

"One was a boy, and the other, a girl. Though both were born beautiful and healthy, they began to show symptoms of illness the older they became. Eventually, it was discovered that they had inherited a mild heart disease passed down from their father's bloodline. And so, their mother decided to put her children in the village healer's care. However, the mother refused to allow her children to be under the same roof as her daughter, so she told the healer that she was to fire her daughter. 'You are the best healer in the village,' her mother told her. 'And I always get the best. You will tend to my children, but only if you get rid of _her_.'

"The healer stood her ground and said, 'I have no desire of letting go of such a wonderful worker. The children love her, and so do I. I will not ask her to leave.' But the mother was quick on her toes and retorted, 'Very well. My children will _die_ and I'll make sure everyone in the village knows how _you_ refused to care for them.' The healer still did not budge and replied, 'And _I'll_ make sure everyone in the village knows how _you _refused to be the mother to your first born child, and how _you'd_ sacrifice your own children to get what _you_ want. My sincerest apologies ma'am, but I am in the business of healing children, not using them as pawns. Your threats are not welcomed here, so if there's nothing more you'd like to discuss, you know where the door is.'

"And with whatever dignity she had left, the mother stormed out of the clinic. But she soon returned for a vengeful feat when she brought her rich and powerful husband to the healer and threatened to shut down the children's clinic if the healer was to disobey her orders. With so many children to look after, the healer hesitantly gave in to intimidation and agreed to fire the girl.

"Once again, the girl was left with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. After spending many days and many nights wandering the streets once more, the daughter became desperate and eventually decided to visit her mother at her new home. Upon her arrival, she met a house full of darkness with no signs of inhabitants to greet her at the door. 'They must be at the clinic,' the girl thought as her knocks went unanswered. She turned the knob, but found that it was locked. She knew it was wrong to enter one's home without permission, but she was so tired, cold, and hungry. 'Mother will understand,' she reasoned.

"After circling around the cottage, she found a window that was left open by just a crack and wasted no time in climbing her way in. She realized that she was in her mother's bedroom, for her portrait hung on the wall and framed pictures of her and her new family were found on every dresser in the room. The daughter then saw her reflection in the mirror on a vanity table. Her hair was a mess and her face was dirty. 'This won't do,' she thought as she sat down and tried to smooth down her hair. 'If mother comes home, I have to make a good impression. Maybe then, she'll let me stay.'

"In search of a brush to untangle her short locks of reddish auburn hair, she pulled out the drawer from the vanity table and found a book. 'What's this?' she pondered. Opening its covers, she recognized right away that the markings on the paper were none other than her mother's handwriting. 'Mother kept a diary?' she asked. Flipping through the pages, the daughter finally settled on one random page and began reading.

"The mother wrote, _'Oh, what cruelty! When we first wed, he was a man of position and stature, but now he settles for work that belittles his name. I cannot stand by such a man that is so worthless. How dare he insult me with such lowly ways? The embarrassment is unbearable, and as if humiliation's desire to ruin me is not enough, that man has made me bear such a hideous creature. What monster is she? No one will ever take her hand in marriage, and I will be a prisoner of looking after such a failure of a child for the rest of my life! I'd rather die than have to live in a house of peasants!'_ The daughter stopped reading. It wasn't that she couldn't. It was because her tears had drowned her mother's words into blurs of colors in her eyes. 'Father, is this what mother thought of us?' she asked, knowing that he wouldn't reply.

"Just then, the girl heard the door to the cottage open, and in came her mother and her husband. Not wanting to be found, the daughter took her mother's diary and fled out the way she came, through the window. She ran and ran until her legs gave out, and soon found a group of homeless wanderers huddled around a fire they made. 'Sir, may I sit by the fire?' she asked an old man. He grunted with a nod, but said nothing more. Sitting far from the others, the girl took out her mother's diary and began to read once more.

"The mother wrote, _'My, oh my! What joys have rushed through my ears today! The village leader has a nephew whose wife just passed away. May she rest in peace, but now she has made such a suitable husband into a lonely bachelor. He is my match, my equal. His arm is much more worthy than the one I now hold. If I marry him, I will be free of my punishment of having such a useless husband and a dreadful daughter. Oh, why must I be wed to such horrid luck? I must act quickly before the village whores trap him in their web. But what must I do? The village laws do not allow me to separate from my husband. The only way is… death.'_

"The daughter gasped when she read the last line of that entry. 'She couldn't…' she whispered. 'She wouldn't…' But when she read on, she soon discovered just how capable her mother was of doing whatever it took to fulfill her wishes of living a dream. _'He is dead. What have I done? No, I cannot think like that. He was getting old and was spending his life doing insignificant work anyways. No one would miss him. And now that I am free of that man, I can pursue whomever I so please. And best yet, I can free myself from the burdens of caring for such an abominable child. All that's left is the village leader's nephew. And that certainly will not be a problem.' _

"The daughter couldn't believe her eyes. 'Mother… she… she killed father?' she asked in disbelief. 'That selfish, greedy little whore! How could she? How could she do that to father? How could she do that to me? To us?' The girl stood up from the ground and flung the book into the fire, the fire that burned within her green-colored eyes. 'You took the one person I loved most from me. And for what? So you can go fuck the richest available son-of-a-bitch and have beautiful children with him and live such a wonderful life of luxury? You don't deserve it, you murderous whore!'

"The daughter was outraged and in her fury, she clawed into the fire and clasped her fingers around a thick branch, ignoring the burning pains in her hand. Lifting her torch, she made her way through the night into the village towards the children's clinic. When she arrived, she knew that her mother's children were inside, and wanted to throw the torch onto the roof of the cottage. 'Burn… burn!' she wanted to scream. 'Burn to hell where your mother belongs! She took what matter most to me, and now, I will do the same to her. Now burn!'

"But as she drew her arm back to throw the torch, she found that she couldn't. The healer was inside. The children were inside. Her siblings were inside. Though she wanted to kill her siblings, she knew it would be wrong. They had done nothing wrong to her, and she couldn't bring herself to do harm to innocent children, not even for revenge against her mother. And so, she let go of the torch as it fell to the ground beside her. Then suddenly, a loud roar reached her ears as she looked up and saw waves of flames engulf the children's clinic.

"The girl was stunned. 'What? But I didn't…' she said and looked down to see the torch lying still on the ground. 'But how…?' In all the madness, the healer had woken up in just the knick of time and quickly evacuated the children. Many of the villagers had also woken up and hurried over to put the fire out. The girl, however, just stood there, paralyzed from her crumbling sanity, and did not notice the prowlers that watched her from afar.

"They were soldiers who claimed to protect all the villages in the land. Sometimes, when someone in the village supposedly committed a crime, they were always the first to show up, and they would always take the suspect into their custody immediately, regardless of whether they were innocent or not. And yet somehow, after a short period of time passed, the suspects were released back to their villages on claims that they were indeed innocent of their crime. It was strange, but never questioned by the villagers, for they felt that if they were to challenge the soldiers, they wouldn't want to protect their village anymore.

"But the truth was… it was all a conspiracy. Most of the alleged suspects never committed the crimes, for they were set up by the soldiers themselves. They were not soldiers, for they were the criminals themselves. It was an underground business created by a merciless crime lord to take money from the rich and powerful. It was simple: the soldiers would set up an innocent person who could be used as leverage for those with money and power. The soldiers would then take the suspect into custody and inform their family that in order to release the suspect innocent of all charges, they must pay a ransom. Once the ransom was paid, the crime lord would use that as black mail against the family, so that no one could testify in the event of an investigation.

"The crime lord had set his sights on the village leader for quite some time. It was just his luck that the village leader had a nephew whose wife had three children, with the eldest being outcast by her own mother. He had sent the soldiers to watch her for any suspicious activity, and when opportunity presented itself, they set her up, just like they did the others. And now, she was taken into their custody, and so began the crime lord's sick game of adoption.

"The prisoner was like his newborn, and the family had until the prisoner's first birthday to bid on them. If they could bid on the prisoner at the right price, then they could adopt them. If they didn't, the crime lord would not keep them. Instead, he sent them away to be _slaughtered_. It didn't matter to him. He never placed value on human life, only on what their families had to offer.

"At first, when the mother was informed by the villagers that her daughter was responsible for the near death incident of her children, she was outraged. 'How dare she…' she began. But she stopped herself short when she realized that earlier that night, her diary had gone missing. 'No…she couldn't have…' the mother thought to herself, trembling. 'She knows. She knows! That's why she did this!'

"Before she could even begin to panic, the mother was secretly visited by the crime lord's soldiers who informed her of the deal they were willing to offer her in exchange for her daughter. 'If you give us what we want, we'll give you what you want,' they told her. 'I… I don't know,' she replied hesitantly. 'If you don't know now, then know later. She has a year to live. If you wish to save her, this is the only way,' they warned her before leaving her to decide the fate of her innocent daughter.

"When the mother's husband discovered what had happened to his children, he had nearly gone mad in anger. 'Your _daughter_,' he spat the word at his wife, 'almost cost us our children. _My_ children. She could've killed them!' 'But what if she didn't do it?' she accidentally slipped. Her husband froze and carefully glared at his wife. 'What if she didn't?' he repeated. 'How would you know what she did or didn't do, huh?' his voice began to climb. 'Unless you know something about this!' Her husband grasped his hands tightly around her thin arms and shook her violently with every word he said, 'Answer me! What do you know about her? You know something! Tell me!'

"The mother was about to confess her recent encounter with the crime lord's soldiers, but realized that she couldn't. Telling him what she knew meant telling him _everything_. Her husband could be an arrogant bastard, but he was still morally inclined, and if he knew that she committed murder against her own husband just to manipulate her way to marrying him, he wouldn't hesitate to divorce her and take away their children. Or worst, she could be thrown into prison for the rest of her miserable life. And she would have neither. It was decided. She would _never ever_ tell her husband the truth.

"The mother regained her composure with a bit more confidence, though it was tainted with uncertainty for she feared he would see through her lies. 'She is my daughter,' she reasoned in attempt to steer his attention to another issue. 'Would you immediately believe it if a stranger told you one of our children tried to commit murder?' Her husband replied, 'But some of the villagers witnessed her presence near the clinic. They saw a lit tree branch lying on the ground beside her for crying out loud! And where is she now? Gone! Disappeared! She's run away and do you know why she's run away? Because she's guilty! That's why!'

"The mother put on her mask. 'You're right,' she said quietly, nodding in agreement. 'She is no longer my daughter. I shouldn't let that cloud my judgment.' She slowly walked towards her husband and cupped his face in her hands. Looking deep into his eyes, she told him, 'Don't worry. I'll never allow that monster to hurt our children again. Ever.'

"Since she was concerned for none else than her own fate, the mother decided not to tell anyone of her encounter with the crime lord's soldiers. 'If they keep her locked up, my secret will never be discovered,' the mother thought. 'But she is my daughter, my flesh and blood, I cannot commit such a sin…' she tried to reason. 'No! I mustn't be weak! I have to act accordingly, for my future, for my family's future. This must be done,' she changed her mind.

"And because of her decision, her helpless daughter was taken by those men to a place where she was never heard from again."

And then, there was silence.

I felt my eyebrows furrow and my face fell into a frown. "Selphie?" I called out. She didn't respond immediately, so I assumed that she was too tired to continue and fell asleep.

But soon enough, I heard her voice faintly saying, "Yeah?"

I sighed in relief. I wouldn't have minded if Selphie wanted to wait until morning to finish telling her story, but I was beyond curious as to what happened next. "I'm still listening," I reassured her. But even so, she did not continue. "Isn't there more?"

"No," she simply said.

"Oh…" I whispered disappointedly. "I don't know. It just seems incomplete to me. I mean, did they ever find the daughter? Or did she spend the rest of her life in that place? And her family…" My voice drifted off as I tried to analyze the story's meaning.

Selphie had always been a hopeless romantic, yet this story was filled with the complete opposite. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as "The Mortal and the Guardian", but this story was different. And I couldn't help but feel oddly connected to it for some reason. Maybe it was how the girl was locked up for something she didn't do that sparked an interest in me. After all, I was in a similar predicament. But such a thing couldn't be true. No one could be so cruel as to use some game of adoption to get what they wanted. They just couldn't.

"There _is_ more," Selphie brought up a short while later. "But it hasn't happened yet."

"What do you mean?"

Before she could reply, I suddenly heard the front gates of D-District Prison opening. I couldn't see what was going on outside, but I could hear a lot of commotion. The security guards were running around and loading their guns. There was some kind of truck driving into the prison. Some of the prisoners were screaming. And I could hear many doors to their cells slamming open. "What's going on?" I asked Selphie in a panic.

She didn't answer.

"Selphie? Selphie are you there?"

Instead of answering me, I heard her call out my name, "Rinoa?"

"Yes, Selphie? I'm here," I told her. "What's wrong, are you all right?"

"Before I go, I just wanted you to know that... I love you," Selphie said in a soft voice. "You're the best friend I've ever had and you've been like a sister to me."

"What?" I said confusedly. "What are you talking about? _Where _are you going?"

"Whatever happens, I don't want you to judge me," she continued. "Just know that I had a reason for doing what I did."

"Judge you for what?" I asked anxiously. "What did you do? Selphie, answer me!"

"I really hope someone adopts you soon," she said.

"Selphie, you're scaring me."

"And don't forget to get me a present."

Right when she said that, I heard her door slam open.

"Cause it's my first birthday."


	7. Chapter Five

Chapter Five:

That night was a cold one. The sky was dark and lit up with each thunderous lightening strike as the rain poured down on me. The dirt ground had turned into mud, and I had lain there for many hours without much movement, except for when I had unconsciously curled up into fetal position and hugged my arms close to my chest. Selphie was right; it did feel like winter.

The weather could be quite deceptive. In the afternoon, it was lovely, and I was happy. But never had I thought that in just a few hours when night fell, things would turn to become so dark and sinister. It was like humans. One moment they were wonderful beings, and the next, they revealed their hideous faces that they kept hidden in the shadows where you couldn't see them. It made me realize just how beautiful and ugly the world could be.

My left side felt like it was sinking deeper and deeper into the mud, while my right felt the downpour of raindrops soaking into my already damp skin. Was I shivering because I was cold? Or was I shaking because I was in shock? I refused to answer those questions, not until Selphie answered them for me. A voice of interrogation kept echoing in my head, and my heart was beating a mile a minute. Though I was cold, my blood was boiling in confusion and betrayal, in anger and frustration, in grief and denial. This was out of my control, and as hard as I tried to grasp onto the hows and the whys, it all came back to me screaming "What the hell is going on?"

The more tears fell from my eyes, the more rain fell from the sky, and soon, I couldn't tell which was which anymore. I finally climbed onto my knees, ignoring the mud stuck on my body, and leaned on the wall that separated Selphie's jail cell from mine. It was like the first day we met, when I had leaned my forehead against it as she told me of my fate. And now that I knew the truth, I found myself sitting there in the same position. I started banging on the wall with the palms of my hands.

"Selphie? Are you there?"

I knew very well where she was.

"Selphie? Why aren't you answering me?"

I knew very well why she wouldn't.

"Is it because you ran out of stories to tell? You can tell me any story! Any story is fine. How about the story about your knight in shining armor? You know, the one where you both ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after? In peace, love, and happiness!"

I was answered with silence.

"Damn it, Selphie! Just say something!" I shrieked. But when she would not answer, I sunk back onto the ground. "Have you become like Siren now? Did you fall and… and die? Is that why I can't hear you speak to me anymore?"

All I could hear was the rain.

"Selphie?" I whispered.

"Selphie!" I screamed.

I kept on crying out her name until my voice had gone from me. I knew it was in vain, because no matter how loudly or how softly I called out to her, I knew that she would never hear me again.

* * *

There was a moment of silence that clung in the air within the walls of D-District Prison. The rain had stopped, but the night grew colder and darker, and a light mist drifted above the grounds. It sounded like almost everyone was asleep, but perhaps they were waiting out the stillness of the night to keep the nightmares at bay, like me. Exhaustion crept up my spine, and indeed, I was tired, but every time I closed my eyes, I kept seeing what had happened earlier that night play over and over in my head, and so many voices kept deafening my ears. Selphie had always told me I should never go to sleep angry, but in this case, I didn't want to go to sleep afraid. Maybe it was best if I did sleep. Perhaps, when I wake up in the morning, this would all turn out to be nothing more than a bad dream and Selphie would laugh at me and tell me that if she were to die, she would die in the arms of her lover, or some dramatic love scene of the sort. She'd say that she'd never go out the way she did… the way that I watched her did.

Remembering that night's events made me cringe in disgust and I squeezed my eyes shut to stop the visions from taking over again. But then I remembered something else. Selphie had once said that I always ignored the negative emotions I felt instead of feeling them when they happened. Was that what I was doing just now? Instead of dealing with… with Selphie's death, was I was running away? I scolded myself for being weak again and desperately wished that Selphie would lend me her strength, but I knew I could do no such thing. She had survived many hardships in her life and built her own strength from within. It must have taken a lot of time and effort to be as strong as she was on her own. And I had no right to ask for that. I had no right to be given and receive such a precious gift, and I was ashamed that I did not even try to find my own strength inside me. Instead, this was what I'd become. I was a leech, feeding off the blood that ran through her veins, and I felt disgusted with myself.

No, I could not be weak. I could not give in to the temptation of denying myself the burden of accepting the truth. I could not pretend that tonight had not happened. For Selphie, for myself… I could not. Closing my eyes, I cleared my mind and took a deep breath. Upon opening them, I pushed myself off the ground and stood up. Yes, the truth I would face, no matter how painful it was, I was sure that I would not run away.

I stepped closer to the wall that separated Selphie's cell from my own and placed the palm of my left hand on it. Just hours ago, she was just on the other side. She was so close that I could almost touch her with my hand. We were just inches apart, yet I could not see her.

The door to her cell had slammed open. At the time, I wasn't able to tell how many people stood before her, but I had recognized the voice of Cid. I had heard Cid's footsteps approach Selphie while he chuckled with malevolence, that egotistical bastard. I could almost imagine his fat belly jiggling with every laugh. How he was able to even laugh at someone that was about to receive their death sentence was beyond my comprehension. But he did.

"Selphie, my Selphie, oh my dear Selphie," Cid had taunted her with a sugar-coated voice. "It feels like just yesterday that you showed up at my door. But it's been longer, _much _longer, don't you agree?"

"And you've grown _much_ shorter and balder and fatter since I got here, don't _you_ agree?" Selphie had shot back at him.

I had heard Edea give a short laugh before hearing a hand come to contact with skin. Cid had slapped her hard and started laughing himself. "Now _that_ is something worth laughing about, filthy wench." He had turned his attention back to Selphie. "Well, Selphie my dear, you've always been such a knowledgeable smart ass since the day you've got here. So tell me, do you know what day it is?"

"Of course," Selphie had replied.

"Oh?" he had said a matter-of-factly. "Then I assume you know how we celebrate on such an occasion."

"Absolutely," she had simply stated.

Cid had grunted arrogantly before turning to leave.

"Does that mean…" Selphie had begun to ask in a voice that trailed off. It was the first time since I had arrived D-District Prison that I ever heard Selphie show vulnerability. "…They're not coming?"

"Who's not coming?" I had asked her.

But my question was ignored by Cid's obnoxious voice. "Nobody's coming for you. Nobody did before, and nobody will now. I've kept you for a year, and what do I get? Nothing! Do you know why?" Selphie didn't answer. "Cause that's what you're worth. Nothing!"

When I had heard this, I was fuming.

"She's _not_ worthless!" I had screamed. "The only worthless person here is _you_!"

This time, it had been my door that slammed open, and there stood Edea, as vicious as ever. "Someone needs to learn her place!" she had spat as she lunged at me with her long nails and clenched fists. "The only things worthless here are you and your stupid friend!"

Cid had ordered Seifer to forcefully stop Edea from attacking me, but I was still angry. "At least I have a friend instead of sleeping with some guy to make me feel better about myself!"

Seifer and Edea had frozen in their tracks. I had hit them where it hurt. It was glorious. But now, it was Cid's turn to be furious. "What? What did you say? Who? Who is sleeping with who?" Even though he was asking Seifer and Edea those questions, I had known that he didn't need anyone to answer them.

"You know damn well what I mean," I had retorted. I had been speaking to Cid, but I was looking right at Edea. "What? The boss not good enough for you that you have to get some ass from his employees?"

"You bitch!" she had shrieked while struggling to get free from Seifer's hold. "The only fucking whore here is _you_!"

"Oh? How could I be? I was locked up in a cell. All _alone,_" I had smirked.

Edea had screamed in such anger that I felt a shiver down my spine. But she had stopped when she received yet another hard blow to the face, but this time, with a fist and not a hand.

"Maybe Suspect 496 is right," Cid had said in a harsh whisper while unclenching his fist. "Maybe that's what I need to do to keep _you_ 'all alone'." Edea had begun to slowly shake her head in protest. "Maybe that's what I need to do to keep your fucking legs closed, you goddamn whore! I should send you right back to where you came from!"

"No!" Edea had cried. "You can't do that to me! I am your wife!"

"You lost that privilege when you started sleeping with him!" Cid had pulled out his gun and pointed it right at Seifer's forehead. For the first time, Seifer's cold expression had melted into one like that of a deer in headlights. "And you…" the old man had started chuckling in what sounded like sarcasm and disbelief. "I trusted you. But you put those filthy hands on my woman. Is this what I get? Huh? For taking you in, bringing you off the streets from that goddamn fucked up life of yours, making you my second-in-command? Is this the fucking thanks I get for wasting my time on a piece of shit like you?" Cid had unlocked the safety on his pistol and shoved the barrel right onto Seifer's forehead. Everyone had been in shock, even I had been. Was he going to pull the trigger? We all thought.

But then, the old man had started laughing. "No," he had said. "Oh, no, no, no, you don't deserve such a quick death, my loyal servant. No, you deserve one much, much slower. It makes it that much sweeter." With one more chuckle, he had pointed the gun upward and fired. The whole prison had gone silent. "Who else has been sleeping with this whore?" he had asked as he dragged Edea by the arm and threw her down in front of his feet. "Hm? Who else? Don't be such wusses, come on, I know a couple of you did." But no one had the courage to admit it. "I see… so you all ain't gonna fess up to it. Well, today's your lucky day!"

Cid had summoned a few more of his guards and ordered them to take both Edea and Seifer to their own cells. "That slut is no longer my wife. She's just a prison guard whore. So whoever wants a piece of that ass, go ahead and get it. And if this mother fucker's ever pissed you off, feel free to take it out on this chump. Whatever you want. But… don't kill 'em. Leave that to me."

The guards had gotten a hold of Seifer who went without struggle. Before they could lead him away, he had turned and looked at me with the coldest eyes I'd ever seen. It wasn't the same look that people back home used to give me when they'd pass me by. It was a look that told me I would regret what I said that day. But even more so, Edea was more expressive of her feelings.

"You bitch!" she shrieked. "You'll pay for this! I swear it! I'll make sure your fucking ass rots in this hell hole if it's the last thing I do!" She kicked and screamed as she threw a tantrum while the guards tried to drag her away. Annoyed, Cid had knocked her out so she would be taken away in silence.

Before he left, he had told his guards to take Selphie to the truck.

"Let go of me!" Selphie had ordered them. "You're not taking me to that place! There's no way in hell that I'm going there!"

"Where is he taking you?" I had asked Selphie.

"Very well," I had heard Cid say. "Then you can die here."

And that was when it happened. He turned around. He aimed his pistol at her. When the guards saw this, they jumped out of the way. And before neither Selphie nor I could react, Cid pulled the trigger.

I wondered which was more painful, the bullet that had pierced through Selphie's heart or the grief that had pierced through mine. Cid just turned and walked away while the guards started getting up onto their feet. When reality hit me, I had finally been able to move my body and pushed through the guards to go into Selphie's cell.

"Selphie!" I had cried as I leaned on her doorway.

My tears had blurred my vision, but even if my eyes were dry, I couldn't see her well within the darkness of the night. All that I was able to make out was the still shadow of a girl lying on the ground. Hurriedly, I had rushed to her side only to find that I had kneeled in my dearest friend's pool of blood. The blood was seeping into the dirt, slowly clotting the ground with a strong scent of iron and something else that I didn't have time to figure out. It soaked through my clothes and I could feel a warm, sticky substance on my skin. The smell was so strong that I could almost taste it. Never had I felt so sick in my life than to know the smell of Selphie's blood. Never was there so much that I could drown in it.

"Selphie?" I had called out her name hesitantly. Seeing that she had twitched in response to my voice, my hands had begun wandering her body. It was difficult to find the entry of the bullet wound when blood was pouring all over her limbs. But I had found it, in between her breasts, right where her heart lies. I had quickly placed my hands over the bullet wound and heavily applied pressure in attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Selphie, it's gonna be ok," I had said, trying to sound confident and reassuring, but my own voice had failed to convince even myself of such truth. I had turned to the guards. "Hey, don't just stand there! Do something! Go get a doctor, an ambulance, anything! Come on, we need to get her to a hospital!" I looked frantically from one guard to the next, each unwilling to offer any aid and walking away from me. "You bastards! You sons of bitches! Come back here, damn it!"

"Rinoa?"

I had heard a voice. It was a very soft voice. It used to be strong and assertive, but now it was weak and crackled with sputtering blood. I had looked down at the shadow of a girl before me, just barely able to see her eyes fluttering open. She tried to swallow, but instead she coughed up blood. She tried to sit up, but I stopped her. "Hey, don't try to move right now."

"Rinoa?" I could almost see her mouth moving as she called out to me again. It was one thing to hear her voice say my name on the other side of a wall, but to actually see it come from her lips, I had felt like I was Aki seeing Siren for the first time.

Selphie was so small, so fragile, I was afraid I'd break her just holding her in my arms. I could tell that she was shorter and much thinner than me, probably from being locked up in this place for so long. They never fed us much, just enough to keep us alive. She told me she'd take hospital food over any of the crap they gave us any day.

"Selphie, I need you to wait right here for me, ok?" I had told her.

"No!" she had cried. "Don't leave me here. Don't leave me alone. I can't… I just can't…"

"Shh," I had whispered and held her tighter. "Don't worry, I won't be gone long. You need a doctor, Selphie."

"No, I don't."

I had ignored her. "I have to get you to a hospital, and then, we can eat all the hospital food you want, ok? Just like you wanted—

"Rinoa!" she had interrupted me. "I'm not stupid. I think I know my body better than you do. I'm… I'm not gonna make it. I just… I just know, ok? So don't leave me here."

"Don't say that," I had shaken my head in denial. "There's always time! There's always hope! You _can _make it, just give me a chance and let me help you!"

But she had shaken her head right back at me. "I don't want to make it, Rinoa."

"What?" I had said while feeling my brows furrow in confusion. "What are you talking about, Selphie?"

She blinked. Hard. When she opened her eyes again, they were calm and sad, but accepting. I couldn't tell what color they were, but I could see them. How could she look like that? While there was a bullet in her chest? While her life was bleeding all over her body? How?

"I don't wanna die. Not here, not this way," she had said in a small voice. "But I can't do this anymore."

"Do what, Selphie?"

"Live!" she had exclaimed. "I'm tired, Rinoa. If I don't die today, I'd die tomorrow. There's nothing left for me in this place."

"What about me?" I had said through gritted teeth. "What about our friendship? Does it mean nothing to you? I may have come here alone, but I am _not_ leaving here alone. You're gonna make it through this. _We _will make it through this."

Selphie had shaken her head ever so gently. "You don't get it, Rinoa. There's no such thing as serving your time here."

"Of course there is, it's a prison!"

"No, it's not. And it's about time somebody told you the truth."

"The truth?" I had repeated. "What truth? Selphie, what is going on?"

And then, it happened. Again. I heard it again. That same sound when Selphie was shot. It had been so loud that it paralyzed me. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. My eyes were shut tight. Why do I feel something wet dripping down my face? What was on my face?

I had slowly opened my eyes and screamed.

"Oh my god," I had said shakily at first. "Oh my god," I said again. "Oh my god!" I had screamed. "Selphie? Selphie!" I had unwrapped my arms from her body and shook her from the shoulders. "Selphie, wake up! Look at me!" But she wouldn't look at me. No, her eyes _were_ looking at me. They were open and looking at me. But her spirit was not there.

I had wiped the blood off her face, but more poured out from her forehead where another bullet was lodged. "Why… why did you do that? Why did you kill her? Why!" I didn't have to look to see who it was that stood there with an empty pistol. I knew it was Cid. I was furious. I was outraged. I was out of control. And I wanted to kill him.

I scrambled up onto my feet and lunged myself at him. I had managed to punch him square in the face and scratch his arm before he overpowered me and shoved me onto the ground. He pointed his pistol at me, and for a moment, I had frozen. But somewhere deep within me, my courage had overcome my fear. I would not stand down to that man. Not ever.

"Are you going to kill me, too?" I had asked him. "Go ahead. Shoot me. Shoot me like you did Selphie!"

Cid had stood there for a moment, but then backhanded me in the face. With a grunt, he had put his pistol away and took out a cigarette. "She had it coming to her." Lighting it, he took a long drag before blowing the smoke out through his lips.

"She didn't do anything," I had argued. And then it hit me. "Except… except try to tell me something! You know something, don't you? This 'truth' she's talking about. You know what she wanted to tell me, don't you?"

Cid had smiled smugly. "I don't know what she's talking about."

"Liar," I had spat, trying to get up again, but Cid's pistol beat me to it.

"Uh, uh, uh," he had said shaking his head while pointing the barrel at me again. "The liar is not me, dear, but your lovely friend that has a bullet in her head."

"Selphie isn't a liar. _You_ are!"

"Is that right?" he had nodded with fake consideration. "Well, here's a newsflash for you, Suspect 496. Selphie Tilmitt wasn't who you thought she was. Maybe you think you shouldn't be here, but _she_ belonged here."

"But she's innocent," I had defended my late friend. "She said she didn't do it!"

"Oh, the latter was true, she didn't commit the crime," Cid had explained. "But… that doesn't mean she was innocent either."

"Stop leading me on," I had demanded in frustration. "If there's something you want to say, then just say it!"

Cid suddenly stalked towards me and pulled my face close to his. "Selphie Tilmitt had two younger siblings," his voice had been low and harsh. "Two that probably wouldn't even come up to your waist. You know where working parents put their little children when they can't look after them? A daycare center. And guess who came strolling in one morning with a duffel bag full of explosive devices?"

"No…" I had whispered in disbelief.

"That's right, Suspect 496," Cid smirked. "Your so-called 'friend' is nothing more than a girl who belongs in an asylum. She wasn't sane then, and she wasn't sane when she came here."

"No!" I had said with more power. "She wasn't insane! I spent all this time with her, I think I'd know if she was crazy!"

"Look at her cell!" he had twisted my face towards the cell where her dead body still laid. He unhooked the large flashlight he had hanging on his belt and turned it on. "Does that look like a sane person to you?" He pointed the flashlight towards her cell, and what I could see made my mouth hang open. The walls were covered in what looked like clawed markings rinsed in aged bloodstains. The ground was dug unevenly with what looked like dirt and old vomit. There were big splinters that looked like they were carved or pulled out from the wooden parts of the walls, some with pieces of blood and skin caught in between. The smell was even worse, now that I knew where it was coming from. It had made me sick. But what made me sicker was the human being that lay on the floor in a puddle of blood that soaked into the ground. That was my friend. That was Selphie.

I couldn't answer him, not because I thought he was lying, but because I couldn't deny it. Selphie was kind of strange at times and had moments where I thought she was delusional. The more I had thought about it, the more I realized how much what Cid told me made sense. She did tell me that she worked in a daycare center, and that her reason for being sent to D-District Prison was because she was charged for attempt to bomb one. And now that I thought about it… she never really said that she didn't do it.

"Oh my god," I had said for the hundredth time that day. "That's not possible. It can't be."

And then, it clicked.

Suddenly, Selphie's story about "The First Birthday" had flooded into me, and I had found myself stumbling back to her side. It was a struggle, not because I didn't want to be close to a corpse, but because I feared that Cid might have been telling the truth after all.

I had clenched my eyelids shut as I crouched down beside Selphie's dead body. "Please, don't let it be true," I had silently prayed. "Please…" When I opened my eyes, I couldn't hold back the sharp gasp that rushed into my lungs. "No…" I had whispered.

Under Cid's flashlight, I could see her as light as day. Like her heart and soul, she had wild reddish auburn hair that blazed as brightly as her spirit did. Her eyes were wide and green. She had such gorgeous emerald eyes. I almost wanted to shy away from them because no one had ever looked at me without some kind of disgust in their eyes. I could still see the stains that many streaming tears left on her cheek. Even through all the dirt and grime, the bloody wounds and scars, she was beautiful to me.

But it was the fact that her hair was red and her eyes were green that alarmed me. Maybe it was a coincidence that she had the same physical features as the daughter in the story… there was only one way to find out. I had extended my arm inch by inch until my hand rested lightly on her chin. I had gently grasped her jaw within my fingers. Her skin was so cold and so pale; it almost frightened me to touch her, but I must. Slowly, I had turned her face to look at her other cheek.

"Oh god," my voice had left me in disbelief.

There on Selphie's other cheek was a birthmark which had deformed her beautiful face. Still unable to believe it, I had searched for her hands. Holding them up, I had turned them over to look at her palms, and as soon as I saw it, I dropped her hands as though they were infectious. One of her palms had been burned and was left with a hideous scar.

And then, I had been hit with another discovery.

"She never mentioned their names," I had whispered to myself. "She _always_ gives her characters a name. But she didn't in this story."

Though slow to consider it, it was then that I had realized that "The First Birthday" was not just another story Selphie had made up as she went along, but was in fact, the story of her life.

"Anything's possible, my dear," Cid had said taking another drag of his cigarette. "Maybe it's time you start believing it."

"But…" I had searched my mind hard. "Wait! Then what about 'The First Birthday' story she told me about? Is that story true? Was I brought here so I could be _bid_ on? Why else would she have said that there is no such thing as serving a sentence here?" Cid had continued smoking. "And where were you planning on taking her? And the others? Where were they going? Is it true that you were going to kill them?" Still, he had continued smoking. "Answer me, damn it! What's going on? Why am I here?"

"You're here because you tried to murder everyone in the Galbadian airport," Cid finally replied.

"But I didn't do it—

"And," Cid had cut me off. "The others are being transferred to another facility. The so-called 'First Birthday' that your friend was talking about is for trial."

"For trial?"

"Yes, for trial," Cid had said. "If she's not found guilty within a year, she will be transferred to another facility where they will prepare her for her last sentence."

"What was her last sentence?"

"Death."

My face had fallen when he said that. "She was sentenced to death? _All_ of those people were sentenced to death? Is that why you killed her?"

"I simply put her out of her misery," Cid had smirked. "She was going to die anyway."

"You son-of-a-bitch!" I had lunged at him again, but this time, he hit me real hard.

I laid on the ground trying to keep consciousness, but everything kept spinning.

I had felt him pick my body up. I tried to free myself, but it had been no use. I felt him throw me back into my cell where my head hit the wall. Soon, I felt his breath against my ear.

"Your friend was crazy," Cid had whispered menacingly. "And you're crazy for believing anything she says."

I had heard him close the door to my cell and locked it up tight before walking away. Soon, the trucks were gone, the guards were back where they belonged, and all had become silent again. And then, it had begun to rain.

I took a deep breath as these images from earlier that night played in my head over and over. I finally did it. I didn't turn my back on something I feared would hurt me, and I faced it, no matter how hard it was to do so. Though it was still difficult to accept the truth, I was dealing with it instead of ignoring it. And I knew that had Selphie been there, she would've been proud.

Soon, the rain stopped, and dawn began to light the sky. It was the color of fire, much like Selphie's hair and her heart. But it was quiet… much too quiet, for a voice in this thick air of silence was missing. No, it wasn't missing. It was taken out of spite. That voice that left me lying alone in my cell had left the body of my dearest friend whose body had lain dead in the cell next door. She was alive just moments ago. And now, I would never hear her voice again.

Maybe Selphie had been crazy. Maybe she really was insane. Cid had told me not to believe a word that she said, and how could I? This whole time, had she been telling me lies? Variations of the truth? What was real and what was just a part of her imagination? As soon as I realized how badly I was doubting Selphie's honesty, I had remembered what she said to me just moments before. She had told me she was sorry. She had told me not to judge her. And she had reasons for doing what she did. But whether or not her sanity was broken when I met her, it didn't matter.

She would always be Selphie to me.


End file.
